Friday was Purim. Purim is the Jewish celebration of the events described in the Biblical book of Esther.  Keep reading to learn more about why and how to celebrate Purim as Christians — and how to make the healthy honey cookies we use as part of our own celebration.

The Story of Purim

The condensed version: King Ahasuerus chose Esther (a Jewish woman, although he didn’t know this) as his new queen. His right-hand man, Haman, was angered by Esther’s uncle, Mordecai (who raised her), because Mordecai did not bow down to Haman.

So Haman “tricked” the king into signing an edict that on a particular day, all members of the Persian kingdom could kill the Jews and steal their stuff.

Mordecai learned of the plot and informed Esther, who pleaded with the king on behalf of her people. The edict itself was, by law, unchangeable, but the king allowed them to pass a new edict which said that the Jews could defend themselves, killing their attackers and stealing their stuff instead.

The Jews then instituted a celebration of this victory and preservation of their people: Purim.

The Celebration of Purim

You can read about the original celebration in Esther 9:17-32.

Traditionally, the celebration includes feasting, including the consumption of small cakes/Purim cookies called Hamantaschen (“Haman’s hats”) and a reading of the book of Esther during which the children cheer when Mordecai or Esther are mentioned, and boo, stomp, and make noise with noisemakers called “groggers” to drown out Haman’s name when he is mentioned.

Our Celebration of Purim

We try to do the reading of Esther, but this week was crazy and we didn’t have time. (Maybe we’ll do it late, because Ariel really missed it.)

We’ve also begun a tradition of Purim cookies. I don’t make Hamantaschen.  It seems silly to me to make the main traditional food one which focuses on the “bad guy,” so instead, we make “Esther’s Jewels.” Hamantaschen are filled cookies, usually filled with jam or similar fruit fillings; our “Esther’s Jewels” are jam-filled thumbprint cookies, so they should be a similar cookie with a different focus.

We also make people cut-out cookies, which Ariel then decorates as Esther, Mordecai, Haman, the king, etc.

The Purim Cookies (Healthy Honey Cookies) We Use

I like sugar as much as the next person, but I’ve been trying hard to find/create some healthier “sweet” recipes. “Esther’s Jewels” and our cut-out cookies are both made from the same recipe for healthy honey cookies. This time I also tried adding chocolate chips to some of the dough to see if it would make acceptable chocolate chip cookies.

Honey Cookies for Purim

Rachel Ramey

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Dessert, Holiday

Ingredients

  

• 4-1/4 c. fresh pastry flour flour ground from soft white wheat
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 sticks butter softened
• 3/4 c. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg

Instructions

 

• Combine dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, beat butter, honey, and vanilla with an electric mixer until creamy. Add egg; beat well. Add half of dry mixture and mix well, then add remaining dry mixture and mix thoroughly. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Option 1: Roll dough into 1" balls. Place 2" apart on cookie sheets and flatten to 1/8" thickness.
• Option 2: Roll dough into balls. Place on cookie sheets and make a deep indentation in each one with your thumb. Fill with jam. (You could also try pressing a Hershey's kiss into it immediately after baking, but I haven't had a chance to try this yet.)
• Option 3: Roll dough out on lightly but thoroughly floured surface to 1/4-1/2" thickness, sprinkling the top with flour before rolling. Cut out with cookie cutters and place on a cookie sheet.
• Bake for 5-7 minutes, just until set. Cookies should still be soft. Cool for 1 minute, then remove to wire rack. Allow to cool completely before storing.

The dough is rather sticky, so it can be a tad tricky to roll out.  (The original recipe from which I adapted this one said to chill it first but, by the time I had to let it warm up again sufficiently to be “rollable,” I didn’t think it made any difference.)

As you can see, though, ours came out just fine.  As long as you use plenty of flour so the dough won’t stick, it isn’t too bad.  (The guy on the top left has a small hole out of the side of his head because Ariel cut him out slightly off the edge of the dough, not because he broke.)

The thumbprint cookies have a tendency to want to crack around the edges when you make the thumb impressions in them, and I had to press the edges back together.  I think that using a little less flour in these would probably help.  (I used the dough we designed for rolling, so it had to be stiff, but a softer dough would probably work a little better.)  Still, our rubies and amethysts remained firmly in their settings. 🙂

This year was the first time I tried this dough with chocolate chips.  They were the trickiest.  The chocolate chips didn’t really want to stay in the dough; they kept falling off, so I had to press them into the dough balls with my hands before dropping them onto the cookie sheets.  I think that reducing the flour would probably help here, too.

You have to press them down somewhat flat with the back of a spoon, as this dough doesn’t really spread (again, probably due to the quantity of flour), but they did make quite acceptable chocolate-chip cookies.  The honey chocolate chip cookies are different from regular chocolate-chip cookies (texture-wise, etc.), but I thought they were good.

When the cookies were done baking, Ariel decorated her “cookie men.”  We just use plain old, not-good-for-you buttercream frosting.  (Royal icing is usually the preferred choice for cookies, but it isn’t very easy for little ones to work with.)

Usually we would pipe it out of an icing bag, but since we were short on time and I didn’t want to have to keep swapping colors and tips, Ariel just used a knife.  (When my mom does cookie decorating with kids, she often also uses clean paintbrushes in thinned icing.)

You may notice m&m’s on a couple of the cookies.  Last year Ariel made the observation that “it’s too bad we don’t have any m&m’s,” because they would be good to use as the jewels that “hold Esther’s robe closed.”  So this year, Mama bought a bag of m&m’s.  (And Ariel didn’t remember having ever said that! lol)

(The one in the center is Esther.  Mordecai is in white.  The king is on top.  Haman has the blue clothes and yellow hat, I think.  And the last individual is one of the other ladies who lives in the palace.)

Why We Celebrate Purim as Christians

We don’t celebrate Purim out of any sense of obligation.  It offers an opportunity, though, to spend some time celebrating God’s faithfulness to His people in ways that are fun and memorable for our children.