Focaccia Hamentashen

I've been wanting to make these for Purim for the past couple years, but something always comes up. Today I finally tested my concept, and I intend to put a couple in each Purim basket for mishloach manot/shalach manos I give my friends and neighbors. In Hebrew - פוקצ'ה אוזני המן

Start with your favorite pizza or focaccia dough recipe. I used my dad's pizza dough recipe. I think this one from Anne Burrell also looks good. The following proportions will make 8 hamentashen (enough for a test batch or family appetizer):

Dough:

• 3/4 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water (NOT hot)
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 egg (optional)
• 2 cups flour (I used whole wheat for this test, but I plan to use all-purpose for the mishloah manot.)
• 1 tsp salt

1. Mix all ingredients except flour and salt. Wait 10-20 minutes. Mixture should bubble and rise.
2. Add flour and salt.
3. Knead dough for 10 minutes. Add flour if dough is too sticky. Rest for 10 minutes.
4. Divide into small balls 2"-3" (5-7 cm) in diameter. Fold dough over itself a few times until it is springy.
5. Cover with a damp cloth and wait at least a couple hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

Hamentashen

1. Finely chop garlic and mix with olive oil. Set aside until end.
2. Prepare fillings such as tomato with fresh basil or pesto, or anything you like on your pizza (mushrooms, onions, spinach...). I sauteed onions and bell peppers in oil until they were soft and sweet, then added some quality soy sauce.
3. Preheat oven to the highest temperature (Mine is 250 C/480 F) with convection if you have.  (If you have a pizza stone, you can put it in the oven to heat now, and use it in place of a baking sheet.)
4. Stretch balls of dough into thin circles. Pile filling into the middle. Fold up 3 "sides" and pinch well to form a triangle. (Watch video at the bottom to see how I formed the hamentashen.)
5. Place focaccia hamentashen on baking paper or grease a baking sheet with the garlic olive oil you made in "step 1".
6. Paint the focaccia with the garlic olive oil from "step 1". Try to get some of the garlic on the dough.
7. Bake until brown. Probably less than 5 minutes depending on your oven and how thin you make the focaccia.

UPDATE:
I used Anne Burrell's recipe (link above) and they were great! I doubled the recipe and made 90 tiny dough balls the night before. If you make an 'O' with your thumb and index finger, you'll see about how big the balls were. Then the next morning I just stretched them out gently to fill. Each person/family got 4-5 "focaccia oznei haman" on a plate with some olive, cherry tomatoes, a container of homemade garlic-basil-shiitake mushroom pesto with sun dried tomato spread and pine-nut garnish, and a container of my homemade sriracha.

Check out what I made last year, plus Purim baskets from my neighbors.

Enjoy this month's Kosher Link-up with Purim-related posts from across the blogosphere.