Hamantaschen
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Hamantaschen are cookies, traditionally filled with poppy seeds, eaten for Purim. I hate poppy seeds, and since I was the one making them, I made an apricot (also a popular flavor) filling. If you don’t want to make a filling, just use store-bought preserves. Anyway, they’re in the shape of a triangle, which symbolizes (the Purim bad guy) Haman’s triangular hat or his triangular ears. Hey, I’m just passing along the info…I didn’t make it up.
Anyway, this was a near disaster, and two recipes in the making. The first one I tried was a pareve (non-dairy/non-meat) recipe. Looking at the recipe, I thought it was missing some wet ingredients (orange juice or oil perhaps), but then again, who am I to second guess? I made the dough in the morning, stuck it in the fridge as the recipe says, went out for the day, then came home late afternoon to shape and bake the hamantaschen. The dough was so dry it just crumbled. Thinking I did something wrong, I tried the recipe again and ended up with the same result. So frustrating.
Back to the Internet, and I found this recipe. It’s just okay, not wow! or anything, probably because it reminds me too much of sugar cookie dough. And it’s heavy. The apricot filling is delicious though.
Filling Ingredients
1/4 lb. dried apricots
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
Filling Preparation
Cover apricots with 1/2 cup water. Cook over low heat in covered pan for 15 minutes. Mash and add sugar while hot, then add 2 tablespoons water.
Dough Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
4 cups flour
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Dough Preparation
Cream sugar, oil and margarine. Add eggs and juice and mix well. Blend with dry ingredients and roll into a ball. Refrigerate dough one hour.
Divide dough into four parts. Roll out each piece very thin (approximately 1/8 inch) on a floured board. With the rim of a cup or glass (depending on desired size) cut into the dough to make circles. Place 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon of filling in the middle of each circle. With your finger, put water around rim of circle.
To shape into triangle, lift up right and left sides, leaving the bottom side down, and bring both sides to meet at center, above the filling. Lift bottom side up to center to meet other two sides.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.
Yields 4 dozen Hamantaschen.
Original hamantaschen recipe from Jewish Recipes. I altered it slightly.
Apricot filling recipe from jewishfood-list.com.
Comments
8 Responses to “Hamantaschen”
That filling looks really good!
Sorry you had so much trouble with this the first two times. I feel your pain. But they do look good to me, and the filling looks delicious.
Try adding 1/2 tsp lemon zest to your filling. If you use the turkish apricots, it somehow makes the filling sweeter. If you use california apricots, it’s a really nice balance. I also make a prune filling, same way, but at 1 tsp lemon zest. I use the food processor instead of mashing, for really smooth results.
Sorry they’re not what you were hoping for, but they do LOOK really great!
I’ve got a great hamentashen recipe that is so simple. People FLIP for it. It’s not pareve, but probably could be with margarine:
3 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 sticks butter (I usually melt it a bit)
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Shape into lemon (lg) or walnut (sm) size
3. Press down with bottom of glass
4. Cut into round shape using glass of fingers
5. Place 1 tsp (lg) or 1/2 Tsp (sm) of favorite filling in center of circle of dough
6. Pinch 2 sides up over fillling
7. Place on cookie sheet 350 12-15 minutes
I used to make about 500 a year in high school. Have toned it down since then, but these are a HUGE hit in my office. I even ship them to friends. Let me know what you think!
Thanks for posting the Red Velvet Cupcake recipe. I made them for a friend’s birthday and NO ONE could eat just one. I do them with regular vanilla frosting though (butter, powdered sugar, vanilla).
Genna
hilary, is it bad if i make these for hannukah instead of purim? im organizing hannukah this year but i grew up presbyterian and happen to have a jewish husband! i think im just going to make these anyway!
The best recipe I found for Hamantaschen is from Sundays at Moosewood. I blogged about it here: http://alteredplates.blogspot.com/2007/05/moosey-hamantaschen.html
The apricot filling sounds yum, especially, as Lizzi says, if made with those wonderfully tart California apricots. I’m not in love with poppyseed fillings either, but I sometimes add poppyseeds to the hamantaschen pastry instead. Tastes like the buttery little mohn kichel (poppy seed cookies) my grandmother used to make. I’m posting the recipe on my website until Purim: http://jewishholidaycooking.com/ I invite hamantasch lovers to enter my contest for the best filling: http://jewishholidaycooking.com/food.shtml and I’ll send the winner a copy of my new book, Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover’s Classics and Improvisations. Hope you can join–Jayne
I can totally relate to your frustration. It’s always a gamble with a “new” recipe.
This one is my favorite so far.
I’m running off with your apricot jam recipe, though 😉