Zalleti – New World Style?

We had a snow day today and traditionally on a snow day, I bake cookies. Originally, I wanted to make Lemon Semolina cookies from Gina DePalma’s book, Dolce Italiano and while I ensured that I had semolina in the house, I forgot to make sure I had lemons (and limoncello!). So instead I decided on Zalleti, these polenta cookies from Veneto, Italy.

One problem, well, two, I still didn’t have lemons for the needed lemon zest, nor did I have currants!

I did however have dried blueberries and oranges – so I decided to make some substitutions which I think came out pretty darn good.

Ingredients

3/4C dried blueberries (original recipe was currants) 1/4C boiling water 5T brandy, divided (the original recipe uses grappa but I didn’t think Chris would appreciate me using his brand new Nonino grappa) 1 3/4C flour 1C instant or fine polenta 3/4 cup granulated sugar (plus more for sprinkling on – which I totally forgot to do on the first batch) 1t salt 1t baking powder 1 large egg 1 large egg yolk 1 stick (1/2C) unsalted butter, melted and cooled finely grated zest of 1 orange 2T milk Directions

Preheat oven to 325F. Mix blueberries, boiling water and 3T brandy. Let them sit until the blueberries plump a bit and cool off.

Mix the flour, polenta, sugar, salt and baking powder with the paddle attachment of your electric stand mixer until combined.

Whisk egg and egg yolk. Add melted butter and orange zest. Mix this into dry ingredients and beat at medium speed until blended (it may be a bit crumbly).

Now here’s where I ran into a snag. You see, using blueberries rather than the currants, resulted in the soaking liquid turning blue. And I needed to incorporate that liquid into the dough. So my fear was that it would turn the dough a funky shade of purple/blue. So here’s what I did instead:

Add 2T grappa and 2T milk to dough, mix until incorporated on medium (dough will be less crumbly), about a minute. Drain and stir in blueberries.

Form dough into a disk, wrap in saran wrap and stick in the fridge for an hour until it’s easy to work with.

When the dough is ready, break off pieces about the size of a tablespoon and roll into a log between your palms, then flatten. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 1 inch apart and pinch the ends to give them that diamond look.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes, turning halfway through for even cooking. Let stand on cookie sheet for a few minutes to cool and then transfer to wire rack with a spatula. Reall y good with a cup of coffee!

You Say Macaron; I Say Delicious

As some of you are aware, my daughter, Becky, loves to bake (feel free to check out Bites by Becky on Facebook). So, as a birthday present my parents got her a baking class (I got the same for Mother’s Day) and Becky chose Macaron baking (you can read about that here, Macaron 101. The problem with taking a class like that though is if you don’t use the knowledge soon after, it’s lost. And to bake Macarons, you definitely need that knowledge.

So yesterday afternoon we cleared the decks, banned Sammi and Chris from the kitchen, and tried to make macarons solo. You might think we made a big deal out of making a simple cookie, but you’d be wrong. And here’s why.

Let’s start with the ingredients. I’m giving everything in weight. If you don’t own a scale and you endeavor to make these cookies, tough on you. Buy a scale. ‘Nuff said.

Ingredients

165 grams almond flour 165 grams confectioners’ sugar 1 pinch fine sea salt 150 grams granulated sugar 85 grams water (yes, weigh even the water) 115 grams whisked egg whites 1/2t cream of tartar food coloring (about 4 drops gel), if desired

Directions

To start, know there are two different methodologies for making the , French and Italian. we did the Italian. Also know that we preheated our oven to 200℉ because before you actually bake the cookies, you want a skin on them. Some chefs leave the piped cookies out to form this skin (even overnight), others, like our instructor, Kathryn pre-bake the cookies at the lowest temperature in the oven. More on this later.

1. Put the almond flour, confection sugar and salt into food processor. Pulse four times for four seconds each, with about 10 seconds between each pulse (otherwise you risk creating butter instead of a really fine flour base). Then sift these ingredients so you get a smooth skin later on.

The simple syrup cooking – see the dead zone?

2. Put the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with a whisk. Begin to whisk the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Meanwhile, mix the granulated sugar and water in a small pot and heat on a medium- high heat on the stove. You want this to be boiling all across the pan, no dead zones (i.e., no place where bubbles are not rising to the surface). It should be 235℉ or soft-ball stage for those familiar with the term. For us, we would dip a little spatula into the bubbly liquid and drop it on the edge of the stove, if a little ball formed there twice in a row (no spreading), it was ready. Now, while your bubbling away your syrup, if you get to soft peaks on your meringue, turn down the speed to low until the syrup is ready. Don’t stop moving that meringue around.

It’s a lot to keep track of right?

This batter is pretty close

3. Now, take that syrup and quickly and steadily pour it into the meringue with the motor back up to medium. You want to do this along the edge of the bowl (rest the lip of the saucepan on the lip of the bowl), so as you don’t get the syrup all over the whisk. Beat the meringue until it’s medium peak, the bowl is lukewarm (no longer hot from the syrup) and it’s kind of glossy. About 4 minutes. Becky filling the bag – gives you an idea as to the consistency

4. Fold the almond flour blend into the meringue, until it’s incorporated. What does that mean? It means that if you think the ingredients are combined, lift the spatula about 1 inch above the bowl, if the meringue holds its shape, you’re not ready. The mixture should fall back into the bowl in one continuous drip. Oh, and by the way, if you’re using food color, you should add it when you’re about 75% done folding (yeah, good luck with that. We did it when everything looked almost combined). Oh and if you over mix or under mix you can end up with cracked cookies.

5. Spoon the batter halfway into a bag. With those industrial bags at class we used two, with the smaller Wilton bags Becky had on hand, three. Twist the top of the bag to close it (we tied ours off with rubber bands after using a bench scraper to make sure the batter was at the bottom).

6. Now for your baking sheets. At the very least double up. We tried all sorts of combinations, two uncushioned jelly roll pans, two cushioned cookie sheets, two cushioned jelly roll. I think the last batch on Becky’s two cushioned, heavy jelly rolls came out the best. Anyway, stack two together (it disperses the heat, and you may want to use three if you have issues) and line with silpat or parchment.

7. Snip the bottom of the , leaving a quarter inch opening and pipe the batter into one inch circle rounds about 1.5 inches apart on the sheet. Kathryn has a Piping Guide on her website that you can slide under your sipat or parchment paper to ensure even size cookies.

I leave the piping to Becky; she’s the bomb (though sometimes her cookies have “nipples” – that’s when you don’t remove the pressure on the bag before you take it away from the cookie and leave a little bit sticking up).

8. Here’s my favorite part, slam the baking sheet down about 10 times from a height of six inches to remove air. Make sure your fingers are holding the silpat/parchment in place as you slam. This gets rid of the air bubbles and kinds of smooths the cookies out a bit (sometimes it gets rid of small nipples).

9. Now you bake them – first for 15 minutes at 200 degrees to get the skin and raise the oven temp to 350 (we started at 325 with a hot convection) and bake for an additional 9 minutes or until the macarons just come off the parchment paper when you lift them.

Can you believe it this is where we ran into our problems. You see Kathryn suggested that we do a test batch of four (we did six) to see how our oven runs. The first batch we cooked a bit too long and we thought the temp too high so we lowered it to 300. The second test batch came out well.

Then we started to get lopsided feet (that’s the part that spreads at the bottom of the cookie). We started rotating our trays, adjusting oven temps (was it too hot, too cool?), and this is where we ran into the problem I alluded to earlier with regard to that 200℉. You do a batch, first 200, then 350 (or in our case 300) then you want to put the next tray in and well, you have to wait for the oven to cool back down to 200. Lopsided Feet

Was that our problem? I just don’t know. In the end though, we switched trays, kept the oven door closed during the skin forming section and stopped rotating and actually got a decent batch of cookies. I’m going to write Kathryn to see if she has suggestions to avoiding the lopsided feet though (I’ll let you know what I hear).

So that’s it – now we had dozens of these little circular cookies. Getting them to look like macarons after all that was easy. Pair your cookies together (no need for match.com here), so you have like sizes wed, pick a filling (there are dozens of possibilities), spread or pipe on to one bottom half of a cookie, place it’s pair on top of the filling (bottom side in), give a little twist and voila!

We had some Becky-made key lime curd in the fridge already, so we used that to make a bunch of these, but there are also some nutella ones floating around, and later I may fill some with this almond spread I have (similar to Nutella but with white ). Don’t be afraid to make your own – we were just beat at this point and went with what was already on hand.

Key Lime Macaron

After filling they’re even better if you let them sit for a day (or two), in tupperware. That way, if your cookies were at all dry, they absorb the moisture from the filling and have a bite on the outside but a softness on the inside. Remember though if you use a curd or cream filling, you need to store them in the fridge.

Kathryn co-authored a book on macaron, Les Petits Macarons: Colorful French Confections to Make at Home , baking that I’ll be purchasing but I think next up will be a solid batch of nutella macarons.

The key to these is infinite patience, a sense of humor and an excellent baking partner (Becky wishes she had one of these ;D).

Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

I think the title should say it all. But if you need more convincing here’s the picture!

These were quite good and came together easily enough. The batter was very thick though which made distributing the chocolate chips at the end a bit difficult. I think next time, I may use mini-chocolate chips to get a better disbursement. Also, these were 4 PPV (points plus value) as described in Cooking Light at 20 servings for the pan, but I used my Perfect Brownie Pan which only allows for 18 servings, so that brought them into the 5 PPV range.

These will definitely be made again! Butter Cup Blondies

Ingredients

5.6 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/4 cups) 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (I swirled the melted butter into the measuring cup so the peanut butter came out a little easier) 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly 2 tablespoons 2% reduced-fat milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips Cooking spray 4 (0.75-ounce) peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped – This was one King Size Reeses package that contained 4 cups.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. 2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Combine peanut butter and next 4 ingredients (through eggs), stirring well. Add peanut butter mixture to flour mixture; stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. 3. Scrape the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray (mine was 12×8), and arrange the peanut butter cups over batter. Bake at 350° for 19 minutes (it took mine 23 minutes and I’ve seen others say 24 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Nutella Hamentashen

I’ve offloaded a bunch of photos from my iPhone and found a bunch of entries I’d been meaning to do. This is the first.

Purim was last weekend (not yesterday weekend but a week ago weekend) but if you’re reading this as it’s dated, well, that would be last weekend … confused? Anyway, as usual, we made hamentashen. When we got to the end though, of course we fooled around with our fillings a bit (I don’t think Sammi’s M&M fillings were a huge hit) but I thoroughly enjoyed the filling I did with the Gianduioso I purchased at Eataly in November. Sorry for the picture quality (iPhone after all) but you get the idea.

Nutella Hamentashen

I’m going to have to remember these for World Nutella Day next year. World Nutella Day

Okay, I know I’m a day late, but through the miracle of back-dating, this post still appears on time. Hey, it’s not cheating, it’s using my resources.

Anyway, I wanted to make these yesterday but ran out of time. I wanted to make them yesterday because February 5th wasWorld Nutella Day! Yes, a day devoted to the … well … devotion of Nutella (who needs Valentine’s Day when you have a day devoted to the delicious chocolate hazelnut spread?).

A few years ago, Michelle, over at Bleeding Espresso, and Sara over at Ms. Adventures in Italy started this “affair” and it’s been going strong ever since. So without further delay – let me present you with my contribution to the worship of Nutella!

Chocolate Hazelnut Thumbprints Chocolate-Hazelnut Thumbprints

4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup) 1 cup powdered sugar 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter, softened 2 large egg yolks 1 teaspoon instant espresso 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted 1/3 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread (such as Nutella; I used Gianduioso in a tube that I bought at Eataly – made filling the cookies so much easier)

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Stir egg yolks with a whisk, adding espresso. Add the yolk mixture and vanilla to butter; beat well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.

3. Turn dough out onto a sheet of wax paper; knead 6 times or until smooth and shiny. Shape dough into 28 (1-inch) balls. Roll sides of balls in nuts, pressing gently. Arrange balls 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Press thumb into center of each cookie, leaving an indentation. Bake, 1 batch at a time, at 350° for 10 minutes. Remove cookies from pans. My cookies lost their indent during baking so when I first took them out, and they were still soft, I thumbed them again. Cool completely on wire racks. Spoon a scant 1/2 teaspoon hazelnut-chocolate spread into center of each cookie. These come in at 2 weight watcher points each which is a bit high for a cookie but totally doable, especially if you spent an hour shoveling in the morning. Though, I want to figure out that number again b/c I didn’t use anywhere near the 2/3 cup of chopped hazelnuts the recipe calls for – doubt it will make much of a difference but you never know.

Snickerdoodles

I’m always on the lookout for one point cookie recipes. I’m also always on the lookout for snickerdoodle recipes. So Gold! Found both on Cooking Light (aka MyRecipes.com). Now my friend, Lisa, has been nagging for this recipe, as she wants to make them for her Sukkah open house, so I figured I’d finally post it. Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 tablespoon corn syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 large egg 3 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, stirring with a whisk.

Combine 1 cup of sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add the corn syrup, vanilla, and egg; beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating just until combined. Cover and chill for 10 minutes.

Combine 3 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon, stirring with a whisk.

With moist hands, shape dough into 42 (1-inch) balls. Roll balls in sugar mixture.

Place balls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Flatten balls with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 375° for 5 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft). Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Yield: 42 cookies (serving size: 1 cookie) CALORIES 54 (22% from fat); FAT 1.3g (sat 0.7g,mono 0.1g,poly 0.4g); IRON 0.3mg; CHOLESTEROL 8mg; CALCIUM 3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 10.1g; SODIUM 28mg; PROTEIN 0.7g; FIBER 0.2g

Oatmeal Cranberry Classics

Lest you think I’ve been wallowing in self-pity, I decided to throw some recipes up too. Friday and Saturday night we’ve enjoyed some really good dinners, so as time allows, I’m going to throw the recipes up here.

First, last night’s dessert, Oatmeal Cranberry Classics. I got these from Weight Watchers Best Ever Desserts cookbook, which I believe they sold only in meetings, not in bookstores, and as is their way, took out of print within the year. What attracted me to these suckers (besides I’m a huge oatmeal cookie lover) is that I had all the ingredients in the house. I even had dried cranberries, which I didn’t use though, because no one but me and Mom like them. Instead, I subbed Cinnamon Chips which just give a little burst of flavor. If you want to stay within “protocol” you could have subbed dried cherries, blueberries or chopped dried apricots (and I imagine the ubiquitous raisin) but I wanted a little indulgence. I used my smallest scooper (about 1T) and got 36 cookies (as opposed to the 30 they said) and the best part, each of these little suckers comes in at only 1 point (high fiber). Oh and I found Whole Wheat Pastry flour at Whole Foods but if you use that cinnamon chip link above, you can also get it from King Arthur Flour.

1C whole-wheat pastry flour 1/2t baking soda 1/2t cinnamon 1/4t salt 1/2C light brown sugar, packed 1/4C granulated sugar 2T unsalted butter, softened 2T canola oil 1 egg white 1.5t vanilla extract 1/4C unsweetened applesauce 1.5C quick-cooking (not instant) oats 1/2C dried cranberries 1) Place the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 – spray cookie sheets w/ nonstick spray (I didn’t do this but instead lined them with parchment paper). 2) Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl, set aside (I didn’t bother with a whisk, I just mixed it). 3) With an electric mixer on low speed, beat the sugars, butter, oil, egg white and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended, about 1 minute. Beat in the applesauce. Add the flour mixture and beat until blended. Stir in the oats and cranberries. 4) Drop by level tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets about 2.5inches apart, making a total of 30 cookies (like I said, I got 36). With the back of the spoon, spread the mounds to make 2-inch cookies (I didn’t bother with this step). Bake until the edges are lightly browned about 12 minutes. Cool on sheet for about two minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

SSB5 – Lemony Semolina Biscuits (aka di Limone e Semolino)

Jerry picked Biscotti di Limone e Semolino for this week’s challenge Sunday Slow Baker’s Challenge, initiated by Krista. I’m cheating this week, since I made them before, when I first got the book, Dolce Italiano, you can check out my previous entry: Lemony Semolina Cookies. SSB Week 2 – Sicilian Bars

This week for our Sunday Slow Bakers, Deborah chose Sicilian Pistachio Bars. Like the other recipes, this one came from Gina DePalma’s Dolce Italiano. Normally, with , the hardest part of the recipe for me, is finding unsalted, shelled pistachios but I lucked out and found them at Whole Foods last week. The second hardest part is not eating them before I actually use them in the recipe. While I made it to the recipe with pistachios in tact, I can’t say as much for the leftovers.

This time though, I did remember to read the recipe right through from beginning to end before I started. So, consequently, I did have my pistachios ground up and mixed with my flour and salt. I also had my 13×18″ jelly roll pan, greased and lined and ready to go.

The batter comes together easy peasy, though, like last week, I guess it was a bit thicker than I expected. Spreading into the large pan required some work as I forget to purchase the suggested “offset spatula.” But I managed. Using that large of a pan resulted in a thin cookie though, the advantage of which, was lower Weight Watcher points (by the time all was said and done, I figured about two points a bar). The other thing I noted is that I’m not very good at coarsely chopping pistachios using my food processor. Using the food processor worked fine for the finely ground ones that I needed to mix with flour but when I used it to coarsely chop the ones on top, I ended up with some nuts that were still whole, and some ground; I’m not sure why that is. I did use pulse.

I needed more nuts anyway (as mine didn’t seem to have the coverage others had indicated through pictures) and I was much more comfortable, putting a bunch into a Ziploc bag, and using my mallet to pound them (great stress reliever too). The baking worked exactly as indicated, 35 minutes at 325 and they were golden on the edges but cooked through and nice and chewy for eating on the inside.

One other discrepancy I found, and here I need someone better at spacial mathematics (I have a thing with space and proportions) but the directions indicated I should cut the cookies into 1 x 1.5″ bars (if memory serves – I don’t have the book in front of me at the moment) but that would end up with roughly 160 bars! Since the servings indicated 24 – 36 bars, I cut mine in roughly 2 x 2″ bars and ended up with about 48 (giving the aforementioned 2 points). Now for the important question, how did they taste?

Good! They didn’t knock any of the other recipes out as favorite but they’re easy to put together, taste good, are relatively low in points, and I think, with the green pistachios, would probably make some colorful treats around the holidays. The only other thing I may do differently next time, is still use the amaretto, but maybe only use 1/2 t vanilla and then 1/2 t pure almond extract. I love that almond flavoring.

Purim (Hamentashen)

It’s Purim today (well, I’m pretty sure it’s today or tonight and tomorrow, I’m on vacation, so I’ve lost a bit of time). Anyway, Purim is a Jewish holiday, like many other Jewish holidays, that we celebrate, in that, the reason we’re celebrating is someone tried to wipe us from the face of the earth, they failed, let’s eat. Well, Purim is a little different because in addition to eating we drink for this one too (like Passover where we must have four glasses of wine), for Purim, if memory serves, we’re supposed to get so blasted, we can’t say, recognize or something the name of the villain in the story, Hamen.

Purim was always my favorite holiday as a child (well that and Simchat Torah) because we would go to the synagogue to hear the story, dressed in costume (it started as being dressed as one of the characters from the story but now pretty much anything goes. One year, I was a garbage can – that was the year, I discovered the Men’s Club keg in the kitchen – but that’s another story). The other thing we’re allowed to do during this service, is make a lot of noise – they actually hand out noisemakers because we need to drown out Hamen’s name. I mean, if you’ve ever been to synagogue, you know it’s not like church, Jews talk during services (boy do we – hey we’re there for hours, give us a break) but this one is a raucous good time.

The other thing I like about Purim is that the one of the heroes of the story is a woman, Queen Esther (chicks rule) and now as part of an interfaith marriage, I like the fact that it was her interfaith marriage that was a key to the Jews’ survival. The penultimate thing I like about Purim, is that every synagogue has a carnival for the kids, games, face painting, little goldfish that die a few days later, you know what I mean. Last year, our synagogue added a little twist, while the kids are off in the carnival, the adults can join the Sisterhood for a Passover Wine Sale and Tasting in another room of the building – yum (not all kosher wines are like Manishevitz (sp).

And the ultimate thing I like about Purim are hamentashen. I can’t remember the story, if we eat these cookies, filled with fruit, in the shape of the triangle because they’re shaped like Hamen’s hat or his ears, but they’re pretty darn good. So before I left for California, I made a batch for the girls and my Mom.

Now the traditional filling for hamentashen is apricot and prune (at least in my shul aka synagogue) growing up. But many years ago, I started to experiment with strawberry and raspberry jam in the center. It was good, but the jam melted and ran. Then someone suggested to me using the Solo Pastry and Pie fillings that can be founded in cans in the aisle and an entire new world opened up. This year we made prune (because they’re still my mom’s favorite), Apple (my favorite), Raspberry and Blueberry.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, you take these hamentashen and make little goodie bags for people called Mishloach Manot (or Shalach Manot depending who you ask), and give them to friends and family.

So anyway, I thought today, I would share my hamentashen recipe with you all. I got it originally from my aunt Sheila and it’s since been given to dozens of people (I taught a class using this recipe last year). Unfortunately for those of you who keep kosher, it’s dairy – but it’s good, so just enjoy it with a meatless meal.

Hamentashen

Recipe By :Aunt Sheila Serving Size : 60 or 105 (see note below)

4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 3/4 cup sour cream (I use fat free with no ill affects) 1 teaspoon baking soda 1.5 cans solo pastry filling (or four half cans as I did or make two batches to use them all) 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter, softened Directions

0. Preheat the oven to 350. 1. Dissolve baking soda in sour cream. 2. Cream the butter and sugar. 3. Add the eggs, beat well after each addition. 4. Add flour, salt & sour cream to mixture – stir until combined. 5. Refrigerate for an hour. 6. Roll dough out to about 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick (see note below): 7. Cut into 2 inch circles using the top of a glass or round cookie cutter. 8. Put pie filling in center and pinch ends to form a triangle (here are some photos to demonstrate). 9. Bake 15 – 20 minutes – until golden brown (I bake them on parchment paper, so can’t remember if it’s a greased or ungreased cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

Updated March 2017

I finally used the recipe builder in Weight Watchers for these. At 60 (thicker dough and larger cookie cutter), they come in at 4 smart points each. However, if you use a smaller cutter (mine was 2 3/8 inch in diameter) and ensure you are rolling to 1/8″ thick (I use the pastry circles to do this), then you can get between 100-105 hamentashen at 2 Smart Points each.