Traditional Hamantashen
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Hamantashen, the classic Purim cookies, are eagerly awaited by everyone young and old. They are versatile and can be made from a good sweet yeast dough, flaky dough or from a traditional cookie dough. The fillings can be mixed and matched. Prune butter and poppy seed are traditional but one can use any kind of jam or preserves.
Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
juice of one lemon
rind of 1 lemon, grated
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5 cups flour
2 tsps. baking powder
Fillings:
1 pound prepared poppy seed filling
or, 1 pound lekvar (apple or prune butter)
or 1 pound strawberry or apricot preserves
Preheat oven to 350
Grease cookie sheets.
Beat eggs and sugar. Add remaining ingredients, and mix well. Divide into four parts.
Proceed to assemble and bake according to Hamantashen illustrated.
Illustrated Guide:
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1. Prepare dough of your choice. Divide into four portions
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2. On a floured board roll out each portion to about 1/8-inch thick. Using a round bicuit or cookie cutter cut 3-inch circles.
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3. Place 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon of desired filling in the center of each circle.
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4. To shape into triangle, lift up right and left sides, leaving the bottom down and bring both side to meet at the center above the filling.
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5. Bring top flap down to the center to meet the two sides. Pinch edges together.
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6. Place on grease cookie sheet 1 inch apart and bake at 350 degree preheated oven for 20 minutes.
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Latest Comments:
For Charles: I have found the food processor method of making pastry dough to be the best. It is very fast and as soon as it holds together, turn the processor off. Put the dough in the refrigerator for about 1/2 hour before rolling out. The other place where things can go wrong is in overhandling once you have the dough ready to roll. Good luck!
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Maybe I need to go back to basics and learn more about making basic pastry crust. Anybody have an suggestions about making pastry crust? No, I don't want to purchase it ready made, I know that works. I want to make it and recapture the love that went into making homeade pies and pastries. No suggestion is beneath me or too simple to consider.
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So I sent 3 bags full of toys and food to my grandbabies, last week. When they opened them the toys and the food were all over. The chocolate hamantashen were eaten first. I did not make them and they were not good, so it was decided that Grandma did not make those, but the fruit and the poppy were excellent. So I guess that I am still in there good graces. I did make cooke ones this year, but will try the pastry for next year.
To Mail the packages, I found it was good to freeze the cookies and then send priority mail in plastic and paper. They were received the next day and were very good.
Thanks for all of our help.
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How do you pack the hamantashen and where do you get the correct box to mailthem in. Thanks Phila Pa
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While searching for new recipes I found this online recipe that is very close to the one I have used for 30 years. I have a couple of small changes that make a hamentashen that will elicit raves. While I've used many fillings over the years, the two favorites of most family and friends remain the poppyseed and the blueberry hamentashen. The blueberry hamentashen uses either a very thick blueberry preserves or for an even better outcome, a thick canned blueberry pie and pastry filling.
To the lady in Maryland, add a little more flour to the dough, and make sure to keep the waxed paper you roll and cut the dough upon, floured well, and that will help. You want only enough stickness left so that the corners stay together and do not open during baking. A filling too thin will also open them.
I use orange rather than lemon for my recipe. I also take one egg and use the egg white with one tablespoon of water, whisked until foamy, and take a brush to LIGHTLYglaze each hamentashen
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i would like a cream cheese hammantashen recipe - made with yeast, so that it tastes a bit like challah and not a cookie. also, the poppy seed filling that is quite sweet.
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So I got up this morning, started slow and deliberate, and made a batch of traditional Hamantashen. The results were excellent. I was afraid all the way until they were cooled on the rack. I read and reread the recipe, measured and remeasured the ingredients, refrigerated and rerefrigerated the dough. I chopped walnuts and heated them with honey. You would have thought I was performing open heart surgery the way I worked. In the end I put several dozen in a heavy plastic freezer bag and then put the bag in a special box and mailed them to a Jewish friend. Those cookies I can stand behind! I feel so much better!! This may sound stupid, but I am now going to have a happy Purim.
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Love This Recipe! Add these steps:
Handle the dough as little as possible and don't blend to evenness.
Lumps make dough light and flaky.
Form pastry into a ball and wrap in plastic and place in fridge 1 hr or more. This is very, very important. Otherwise it's sticky to work with and turns out tough,
Sometimes air pressure makes a dough more damp and sticky so you might need 1/2 -2/3 cup more flour.
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This was the worst baking experience of my life. I followed the instructions perfectly, let the dough rise over night in the refrigerator, but when it came to folding the cookies, the dough was sticking to my fingers, it pulled and would not cut. I actually couldn't cut a circle without using a knife. I made a half a batch for baking and they puffed up so bad when I baked them they looked awful, would not hold the filling, didn't even look like Hamantashen. This was a bad idea from the start. Tomorrow I am going to have to do something to regain my confidnece or I will never bake again. Everyone has some big failure. This was mine. I wanted so much to impress my Jewish friends for Purim by making Yeast Dough Hamantashen and it made me so angry I sat in my chair and went to sleep in utter frustration after cleaning up the kitchen.
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After spending more than five hours making a few dozen hamentaschen, i felt that those with busy schedules, can purchase frozen cookie dough, fill the cookie with chocolate chips, or jam, make the triangle, and enjoy the quick, easy, hamentaschen with your kids. Add chocolate chips to the dought and make the triangle.
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