In the interest of keeping it real, I will confess that I tried very hard this week to create a recipe for salted caramel Hamantaschen. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Well, don’t get too attached because I never managed to make it work. First, the caramel leaked out. Then my attempt to make empty Hamantaschen shells that I could fill with caramel after baking flopped.
Luckily, I had not put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. While I was tinkering with heretical flavors of Hamantaschen, I also made some traditional jam-filled ones using my favorite, Damson plum jam. Those worked just fine. So this is a recipe for your everyday, jam-filled Hamantaschen. But you know what? Those are still pretty delicious.
The key to this success for this recipe is giving the dough plenty of time to chill and harden in the refrigerator. Chill the dough before rolling it out. Then, once you have rolled out and filled your Hamantaschen, chill the cookies prior to baking. This step will ensure that they will hold their shape in the oven and you will end up with the triangular Hamantaschen of your dreams.
Approach Hamantaschen dough like pie dough. Start with cold butter. Make the dough in the food processor and include some lemon juice as a tenderizer. I doubled down on the citrus flavor by adding some lemon zest as well. And again, give the dough plenty of time to relax in the refrigerator.
Rolling out the dough and filling the cookies with your favorite jam or spread is the fun part. I got my sous-chef JR involved in cutting the circles, adding the jam and pinching the cookies into their distinctive shape. He was very enthusiastic and it was a fun project to do to together, as holiday baking should be. (Many thoughts are going through my mind as I look at this photo, like: “Are his hands clean?” And:”Nice hair!)
You can use any jam that you like to fill your Hamantaschen as long as it is good quality. Berry, apricot and plum jams all work nicely. You can make a filling too, but to my mind, the dough is enough work as it is. No need to make a special filling when we all have plenty of jars of jam around, right?
Purim begins Wednesday night so make the dough for these Hamantaschen today to have cookies in time for the holiday. Chag sameach Purim everyone!
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 5 oz (10 TB) cold butter, cut in cubes
- 1 lemon
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz jam
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a food processor.
- Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Zest and juice the lemon.
- Add two of the eggs and the yolk of the third (reserve the white), 1 TB lemon juice, all of the lemon zest and the vanilla and pulse several times until the mixture is crumbly.
- Turn the dough out into a bowl and knead it against the sides of the bowl until it comes together.
- Divide the dough in two and wrap well in plastic. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat mat.
- Allow the chilled dough to soften slightly by leaving it out for 10-20 minutes.
- On a well-floured board, roll out the first disk until it is ¼ inch thick.
- Using a 3-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out circles and transfer them carefully to the prepared baking sheet. Gather the scraps and refrigerate.
- Add a scant teaspoon of jam to the center of each circle. Fold the sides of the dough up and pinch into a triangle shape. Chill the filled cookies for at least 20 minutes prior to baking.
- Brush the outside of the cookies with the remaining egg white.
- Bake 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.
- Repeat with the second circle of dough. The scraps can be gathered together and rolled out again.
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