? This is the tricky part: PINCH the dough together to form three corners around the jam-filled center. Do notROLL or FOLD the dough, because usually the dough breaks when you try to do that.
? Once you have them in the triangular shape, bake for about 15 minutes. Check at around 12 minutes to check on the color. You want the final color to be a golden light brown. The addition of citrus can make it brown faster, so don’t wander off and do other things, or you’ll end up with charred cookies.
? Store in an airtight container for up to five days.
Innocence
Starring Jesse, J.J., and Mr. Minegold, fromPale Girl,and so many other books.
References to Mr. Minegold’s origin story,Missing Stars.
“Jesse Jakob, don’t eat all the jam, sweetheart.”
The three-year-old slowly puts down the spoon.
“Silly boy of mine. The little hat cookies will be done soon, then you can have one, warm out of the oven. It’ll be much better than just the jam—even if it is very good jam.”
“They don’t look like hats.” J.J. peers into the oven.
“Not hats like your baseball cap, or your winter hat. These are old hats.”
J.J. laughs. “Eating old hats! Daddy! Daddy, we’re going to eat old hats!”
Mr. Minegold scoops up his grandson. “Jesse! Your son does not know the story of Purim.”
“He’s also three.” Jesse comes in, a soft pink bundle in his arms. “Look who’s awake.”
J.J. waves at his sister and kisses the air near her as he runs past, off to the play area in the old mansion where his grandfather, a vampire, lives; where his father, also a vampire, brings them a few times a week, because family is everything. Worth risking everything for.
“You and Sophie do not have to teach him my faith. I am a man of many faiths. Many traditions.” Jakob Minegold suddenly looks tired—old, even though he stopped aging long ago.
“We know that. But we want to. We just haven’t had much time or experience teaching him these big things. This world is full of monsters—I don’t mean like Orcs and vampires, I mean like horrible people who do horrible things to each other. I don’t want to burst his bubble yet. I want him to believe Pine Ridge is a beautiful, wonderful place for as long as he can, and to learn that there are still ugly things inside of it later. And outside of it—much later.”
Jakob Minegold remembers how things started in Poland. How he wanted to keep his students safe. His children safe. How he made light of the signs.
“Dad? Dad, are you okay?” There’s a firm hand on his arm, and someone calls him father, but his own children have not called him father in so long. They are gone. Saved, and gone.
Maybe he has grandchildren. He must.
But right now, he has J.J. and Mary, and Robert, and Selene and Matthew... Three are only here because of the gift he gave their fathers. Two are tag-along grandchildren, and he loves them dearly.
“Dad!” Jesse’s voice is frantic. “J.J.! Bring me my cell phone! It’s by Mary’s baby bag!”
There’s panic in Jesse’s voice.
He hasn’t heard panic and terror in one of his children’s voices in a long time.
“Because we sacrifice. And we risk. We do not hear the evil and the screams because there are still good men and women who do what they must. What they can.”
“Oh, thank God.” Jesse hugs him, the little pink bundle of dark hair and pale skin smushed between their chests. “Ithought... I don’t know what I thought. I was so scared for a second. You went far away. You wouldn’t answer me.”
“I was far away and long ago. May I hold the baby for a little?” he whispers.
“Of course! I’m not going to work today. You don’t seem—”
“Sometimes I forget my blessings. You know... If the people of this town had been in my town, long, long ago, almost ninety years ago—I would not be who I am today. I would not be a vampire with a soul. I would be resting peacefully with my wife, buried side by side, and my city would be standing. My children’s children would come to visit my grave. I truly believe that—if all of us who are here together now had been together then—”
“I wouldn’t have been here, Dad. Neither would J.J. or Mary. Or Robbie, or Robert,” Jesse says softly.
