Caramel Apple Pie Hamantaschen for Pi Day!!!

Today is Pi Day!!! Well, in Israel it technically isn't because we put the day before the month, so it is 14.3, not 3.14, but why ruin the fun? Pi Day also just so happens to be my birthday and this year is a big one - 30. Honestly 30 doesn't feel any different than 29 and 364 days. This past year has been a great one - I love my job, bought an apartment, and after 11 years finally live without room mates. None of my former room mates reading this should take that as a slight, I love you all, but living on my own has always been a dream and goal of mine and now it has finally happened.

Now about a week and a half ago I made a pledge to make 7 hamantaschen for Purim and while I did make a million hamantaschen, I fell behind a bit. I managed to make 5 different kinds before Purim (one of which I haven't posted yet) and I thought "Maybe I'll just leave it at 5." But then the day after Purim I remembered that even if I didn't manage to make them all before Purim doesn't mean I can't follow through and finish them. Pi Day offers a unique opportunity to combine pie and hamantaschen and thus I present:

Day 5: Caramel Apple Pie Hamantaschen

These ones were pretty labor intensive. I made dulce de leche from scratch, using condensed milk, and also made an apple pie filling from scratch. Add that to the fact that I basically had no time and I was pretty busy. I've seen plenty of recipes where you make dulce de leche from a can of condensed milk. The easiest way is by putting it in a pot of water and boiling it for 3 hours. It may be easy but this freaks the hell out of me because every recipe I saw had in bold MAKE SURE THE CAN IS ALWAYS COVERED BY THE WATER. This is because if the water level goes below the top of the can it can explode. Yeah, definitely not doing that. My experience with things possibly exploding or breaking always ends with things exploding or breaking so I had to find another way. I ended up going with a double boiler. It took quite some time, about 3 hours, but there was no risk of explosion or injury to myself or my brand new apartment. Also let me tell you, this stuff is liquid gold! It tastes so good! Now I need to go find more recipes that use it so that I have an excuse to make it again...

Look at all that golden goodness

I used Tori Avey's recipe for the apple filling and the hamantaschen. The apple filling also took some time to make. I needed to peel, grate and boil four apples with some water and sugar. This filled my house with some of the best smells. 

It almost looks like spaghetti

Once I had everything made, including the dough, I threw it all in the fridge to chill and made them the next morning. 

Look at that beautiful morning light peeking through the blinds

This morning I had plans to have brunch with my friend Racheli at Cafe Shalva in honor of my birthday. Cafe Shalva is a cafe at the Shalva Children's Center in Jerusalem which employs adults with special needs. If you have a chance you should go check it out, their new center is beautiful! Anyways, Racheli happens to work with a bunch of my friends at Nefesh B'Nefesh so I gave her a bag of the hamantaschen so that they could all celebrate Pi Day and my birthday as well!

And as usual here are the links to the recipes:
Double Boiler Dulce De Leche
Caramel Apple Filling
Buttery Hamantaschen