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Old-School Hamentashen

This version is mildly lemony and somewhat soft-textured when you bite into it, but hamentashen dough can be made in a variety of flavors, and the filling is as flexible as your imagination. I've seen double chocolate hamentashen and even savory hamentashen filled with blue-cheese and dates. But my favorites are the apple, prune-, or apricot-filled little lemon scented triangles. The tender and not too sweet cookie is a perfect match for these sweet traditional fillings!
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time12 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Jewish
Servings: 40 smallish cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 stick or 8 tablespoons salted butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 lemon zested, juiced, and with the pulp scraped out (remove the seeds)
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • *Assorted jam fillings like apricot apple, lemon, prune, raspberry jam mixed with chopped walnuts, cherry or preprepared poppy seed filling*

Instructions

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract, and water. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed.
  • Next, add the lemon zest, juice, & lemon pulp, and mix on low speed for 1 minute.
  • Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined.
  • Remove the dough from the bowl and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
  • Preheat your oven to 375F. Prepare 2 Cookie sheets with parchment paper and place aside.
  • After chilling, unwrap the dough and cut into thirds. Place 1/3 of the dough on a well floured surface and begin to roll the dough out with a floured rolling pin. Continue to roll into a loose circle, about 1/8 of an inch thick.
  • Take a 3 inch diameter round cookie cutter (or drinking glass, as I did here), and begin to cut out circles. Be mindful of where you choose to use your cutter to minimize waste.
  • Once all the circles have been cut, reserve the scraps for one more roll out. You can get another couple of cookies out of the scraps, but I wouldn't recommend a 3rd roll out with the same dough because the texture gets rather tough.
  • Place a heaping teaspoon of your favorite filling into the middle of each circle.
  • Pinch 3 corners (very tightly) with slightly water dampened fingers, to create the 3 sides.
  • Place the finished cookies carefully onto your prepared cookie sheets.
  • Repeat the rolling/cutting/filling/pinching process with the rest of the dough.
  • Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are slightly crisped and the bottoms are lightly browned.
  • Once baked, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Baked Hamentashen can be stored in a covered tin or tea cloth draped plate for about 3 days, before going stale. They also freeze well in a tightly covered container, for up to a month.

Notes

Based on an old family recipe