Lemon Poppyseed Hamantaschen - West of the Loop

A sophisticated, delicate take on traditional Purim hamantaschen: lemon poppyseed!

Next week brings the Jewish festival of Purim, a carnival holiday where people are encouraged to dress in costume and make merry. Purim commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from an evil government minister, named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish community in ancient Persia.

As I have explained many times before, the signature food of Purim for Ashkenazi Jews is hamantaschen, a triangular, filled cookie. The cookie’s shape is said to come from the three-cornered hat that the villain Haman wore. Hamantaschen are often not very tasty, which is a kind of a bummer considering they are a cookie. But even cookies can go wrong and hamantaschen have a particular reputation for breaking bad – turning out dry, tasteless or soggy. And actually breaking. Which is bad.

I have experimented a lot with hamantaschen and have developed a recipe that I like with a buttery, sweet dough that works well with most fillings. The key to this success for this recipe is giving the dough plenty of time to chill in the refrigerator before rolling it out. When you are ready to make the cookies, use a round cookie cutter that is at least 4 inches in diameter to cut out circles of dough. Place the circles of dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. (Trying to move the cookies once filled is a recipe for disaster, so place them on the cookie sheet and then fill them.)

Fill the circles and fold into a triangle. In my experience, folding the sides over like an envelope to form the triangle works better than pinching the corners together. Once you have filled and folded 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. To make the cookies extra glossy, brush with an egg wash right before baking.

The only note of caution I have is that this dough is somewhat temperamental. Don’t let it get too warm and do not roll it out too thin. To move the circles of dough to the cookie sheet, I often like to use a spatula or other implement that will support the dough rather than my hand.

As I mentioned, chilling the cookies prior to baking is really important but even then, some cookies might split or break. That’s okay! Just eat them quickly before anyone sees them. However, even though the dough can be tricky to work with, I still like this recipe because the cookies come out with a delicate, crumbly texture and lots of buttery flavor – less finicky doughs made with oil just don’t taste as good to me.

Today, I am sharing a recipe for lemon poppyseed hamantaschen – a combination that is both delicious and has some symbolism behind it. There are different stories about why Jews eat dishes containing poppy seeds at Purim. One poetic tale is that Queen Esther – the heroine of the Purim store – subsisted on poppy seeds during a three-day fast while she prayed to God to repeal the evil Haman’s murderous decree against the Jews.

Another is that when Queen Esther was living in the court of the Persian king, hiding her Jewish faith, she subsisted on a vegetarian diet of nuts and seeds to avoid breaking the laws of kosher. Eating foods with poppy seeds at Purim, therefore, honors Queen Esther’s bravery and her devotion to her people.

For this hamantaschen variation, I have worked poppy seeds into my go-to dough recipe and instead of filling the cookies with jam, I use silky-smooth lemon curd. (If you can still find Meyer lemons where you are for the curd, all the better.) If you are pressed for time, by all means, feel free to skip making your own lemon curd – even though it is not difficult – and use store-bought instead. The hamantaschen will still taste delectable and look beautiful and sunny.

Chag sameach Purim everyone!

Yum

Lemon Poppyseed Hamantaschen

Ingredients

Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
10 TB (5 oz.) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 eggs and 2 egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Zest of one lemon
1/4 cup poppy seeds

Lemon Curd

6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons zest from the juiced lemons
4 ounces unsalted butter cut into cubes

Egg Wash

1 egg beaten with 1 TB water

Instructions

Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and process for a few seconds until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and lemon zest. Add the egg mixture to the food processor and process for thirty seconds. (It will still be somewhat dry and crumbly.) Add the poppy seeds and process one or two times just to combine.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, gather into a ball and knead until it comes together.
Divide dough in half and form into two discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
Make the lemon curd: Whisk together the sugar and egg yolks in a medium saucepan until well combined.
Add the lemon juice and zest and stir over medium heat using a wooden spoon.
Continue to stir and heat the curd over medium-low heat until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon,about 170 degrees, around ten minutes. (Do not allow the curd to boil or the egg yolks will scramble. Keep an eye on the heat and lower it as necessary.)
When the curd has thickened, remove the pan from the heat. Strain the curd through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.
Stir in the butter until it melts. Transfer curd to a jar or other container and chill until needed.
To make the cookies, remove one of the disc from the refrigerator and let the dough warm up slightly to make it easier to roll out.
To make the cookies, preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper.
Roll out dough on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin to between 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch thickness.
Using a 4-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles and place them on the lined cookie sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough and re-roll them out to cut out more circles.
To fill the cookies, spoon a heaping teaspoon of lemon curd in the center of the dough circle.
To create the classic triangle shape for the hamantaschen, do a series of three folds. First, fold one side of the cookie in so that the edge comes to the middle of the filling. Fold the second side in the same way and so that it partially covers the first side. Finally, fold the remaining side up and in so that it overlaps the other two sides. Pinch the corners together as needed.
Chill the cookies for at least fifteen to twenty minutes prior to baking.
Using a pastry brush, brush the outside of the cookies with egg wash.
Bake for 15 minutes or so until the cookies are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Repeat with the remaining disc of dough.