With Purim coming up, Jewish cooks from all over are scrambling to be creative in their Purim treats. There have been numerous twists on Hamantashen posted on other blogs. I myself created two great twists on the traditional Hamantash for Ami Magazine, as well as adorable Hamantashen cake pops for Joy of Kosher. But…let’s not completely forget the original!
If you have always been one of those people who admire hamantashen, but can’t get your homemade version to look right, you’re in luck. The Humble Hamantashen Fairy (that would be me) is here to provide you with the tips and tricks you need to make your hamantashen look like they came from a bakery. Scroll down for the recipe, then check out my tips and step by step pictures on my guest post on Cook Kosher.
Hamantashen
Adapted from The Heimishe Kitchen
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups flour
pinch salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks, whites reserved for topping
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 sticks (1 cup) butter or margarine
1/2 cup orange juice
Filling: your choice of jams, or Nutella
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Add the egg yolks, vanilla, margarine and orange juice. Mix until it forms a smooth dough.
On a well-floured surface, roll the dough out. Make sure it isn’t too thin (details on my guest post). Using a circle cookie cutter, or the rim of a glass (about 2 inches in diameter) cut circles out of the dough. Place about 3/4 teaspoon of your choice of filling in the center of each circle. Do not overfill.
Bring two arcs of circle up to meet in the center. Raise the third side of the circle to meet the first two arcs. Pinch together all of the seams where the dough meets. Using your finger, rub a bit of egg white into the seam.
Place the shaped hamantashen on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.
Don’t forget to read through my tips before baking these to ensure they come out perfect!
Enjoy!
Thanks for coming by! Stay tuned for some more adorable purim treats! -Miriam
oh that is just incredible. It looks so fresh and delicious.I love the design. You my friend are amazing
Oh wow, thank you! What a compliment!
I’ve never had these before but they are very pretty!
I guess these are one of those traditional foods that seeped their way into New York culture but haven’t made it all over the country yet.
These look delicious! Do they result in soft cookies or are they hard? I’m looking for a hamentaschen recipe with a soft cookie.
They are quite soft- in fact, many of my tasters were quite surprised when tasting them, because most Hamantashen are hard.
They look perfect! I always use my mother-in-law’s recipe but I may try this one.
Thanks!
Irene
I am going to try to make these sometime. I love that they are filled with different ingredients and I love their shape. Thank you for sharing your recipe, I’m glad that it results in a soft cookie.
Thank you Paula! If you’ve never tried Hamantashen you really need to- they’re so delicious!
These look yummy, I will have to try them!
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[...] off, we have traditional hamantaschen, plus a guide I wrote on CookKosher on shaping beautiful hamantaschen (that stay [...]
how thin do you roll out the dough? 1/4 inch?
Hi Esti – that’s about right.