I have a mild obsession with pomegranates. Those
juicy red seeds, bursting with flavor - I've been known to eat a whole
one myself. And end up with red-stained fingernails. But I don't bake
with them a whole lot, since they're not the easiest fruit to
incorporate in to dessert. Enter these tarts - with a pomegranate
flavored pastry cream base and a topping of fresh pomegranate arils -
they just hit the spot.
Hamantaschen - the traditional three-cornered cookie eaten on the Jewish holiday of Purim - have a terrible reputation. And there's a reason for that. I would say 90% of the hamantaschen I've eaten from bakeries and stores and even other people's homes have been terrible. Dry, tasteless, crumbling and with unappetizing filling, they seem a difficult thing to master. But they shouldn't be. After all, what distinguishes hamantaschen is their shape, not any particular dough or filling. So why not enjoy some seriously tasty varieties this year?
