The triangle-shaped cookies are filled with chocolate, poppy seeds, or fruit. The ones we’re sharing today are filled with dried apricots! You’d be hard pressed to find Purim festivities without some of these cookies.
Make Hamantaschen Cookies for Purim
Purim is not a solemn occasion. It’s a party! At a Purim celebration, the story of the Book of Esther (which rivals a soap opera in complexity) is recounted, and every time Haman’s name comes up, you are obligated to jeer, hiss, and clang your noisemakers. What do these delectable cookies have to do with any of this? In the Book of Esther, Haman plotted to destroy the Jews of Persia, but he was thwarted by Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai. It is said that the cookies were designed to resemble either Haman’s ears or his tricornered hat. Both of these origins are untrue, but they make good stories. In any case, hamantaschen are about the sweetness of triumph over adversity, and are worth making when Purim arrives in the spring.
For This Hamantaschen Recipe
Hamantaschen dough is a lot like sugar cookie dough, but I’ve made a few changes to boost the flavor and make the dough less puffy and more crispy. The cookie part does not overpower the apricot filling. These hamantaschen are like tiny pies … and who can say no to that?
I added citrus zest for some zip. It nicely complements the apricot filling.I use just a little baking powder (1/2 teaspoon). You get crispier cookies with a buttery flavor that really comes through. If you prefer puffier cookies, up the baking powder to 1 teaspoon.Classic hamantaschen recipes call for using oil or margarine in the dough instead of butter. I’m using butter here because I prefer the taste and texture when made with butter. If you want to enjoy these with a meat meal and keep kosher, you may certainly use margarine instead.
Tips for Making Hamantaschen
Both the dough and the filling are easier to work with if they are thoroughly chilled. Shaping the cookies takes time, and the baked cookies look much better if you don’t rush through it.
Break the work up over two days. It makes the dough easier to work with.This dough can be on the crumbly side when it’s straight from the fridge. Let it come to temperature 10 minutes before rolling, and it’ll be much easier to handle.Don’t cut rounds smaller than three inches. These are tricky to shape if the rounds are little.If you don’t have a three-inch cookie or biscuit cutter, use the mouth of a drinking glass that comes as close to three inches as possible, and dip it in flour.Pipe, don’t spoon, the filling. It’s way easier to transfer the chilled filling to a zip-top sandwich bag, snip off the corner, and pipe dabs straight onto the dough rounds.You only need about 1 1/2 teaspoons per cookie. Overfilling makes them hard to shape.
Do not eat these cookies straight from the oven. The filling will be hot, hot, hot. Not only will it be too hot to actually taste, but it can burn your mouth. It’ll hurt and make you feel like an idiot, to boot. Trust me!
How to Shape Hamantaschen Cookies
I’d always pinched the corners of my hamantaschen and wind up with cookies that blew out on one or two sides as they baked. The solution? Fold the dough instead of pinching it. It’s faster, and it gives you a more professional-looking result. If the dough cracks when you fold it, don’t sweat it. Just keep on shaping cookies. The imperfect cookies should be the first ones you eat.
How to Make Ahead, Store, and Freeze
Hamantaschen are best the day they are baked, because the pastry is crispy and contrasts so nicely with the filling. The following days, they soften up and are still plenty tasty (tasty enough for me to eat six in row). Even so, you can prepare a few steps ahead of time. To prepare ahead of time: You can make both the filling and dough up to three days ahead. To store hamantaschen: The cookies will keep at least three days in a tightly covered container. To keep them from getting stale, slip a silica gel packet (the kind that comes with fancy crackers or cookies) in the container. They keep commercially prepared baked goods from getting soggy, and they do the same thing for homemade treats. I stockpile silica packets for this very reason. To freeze hamantaschen: These cookies freeze well but may be soft when you thaw them. Layer them in a tin or plastic container between waxed paper or freeze them in a single layer in a zip-top freezer bag. They’ll keep for a few months.
Other Hamantaschen Fillings to Try
Whatever you opt for, you want it to be thick and hefty, so it does not leak out of the cookies as they bake. You’ll need at least a cup of filling for these cookies.
Poppy seed Apricot Prune Nutella Apple butter
More Recipes Like Hamantaschen for High Holidays Celebrations
Chocolate Cranberry Rugelach Coconut Macaroons Chocolate and Hazelnut Matzo Toffee Pecan Meringue Cookies Slow Cooker Orange Almond Rice Pudding
1 1/4 cups (7 ounces) dried apricots 2 tablespoons honey
For the dough:
2 cups (262g) all-purpose flour 3/4 cup (156g) sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, or margarine, chilled 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest 1 large egg, lightly beaten
Remove the apricots from the saucepan with a slotted spoon and place in a food processor. Reserve the cooking water. Add the honey and 1 tablespoon of the cooking water to the food processor, and puree until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the food processor from time to time. If the fruit is too thick for the machine to puree it, add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of cooking water. Scrape the filling into a container, let it cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight or up to three days before baking. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the chilled margarine or butter into the bowl (work quickly so the butter does not melt). Add the lemon and orange zest. Work the grated butter into the flour with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add the egg and knead with your hands for 1 to 2 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer crumbly. Lay the dough on the plastic wrap, press into a flat rectangle, and wrap tightly. Chill in the refrigerator overnight, or up to three days. Dust both sides of the dough lightly with flour. Roll out to an even 1/8-inch thickness. Use a dry pastry brush or your hands to brush off the excess flour. Using a 3-inch biscuit or cookie cutter or a drinking glass, cut the dough into rounds. Place the rounds on the baking sheets as you go. Once your first sheet is filled, pop it in the fridge so the cookies keep their shape while you work on the second baking sheet. Save and refrigerate the dough scraps. Repeat with remaining half of dough, then reroll scraps and get as many rounds as you can out of them. (You’ll have anywhere between 26 to 36 rounds). Working with one baking sheet at a time, pipe a circle of filling (about 1 1/2 teaspoons) on the center of each dough round. (You will likely have extra filling. Store it in the refrigerator and use it to spread on toast or stir into yogurt.) When the timer goes off, rotate the sheets front to back and top to bottom. Reset the timer and bake the cookies for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Total baking time will be 12 to 16 minutes. The cookies are crispiest on the day you bake them, but they will last for up to three days in a tightly covered container.
