Hamantashen

[I_call_the_duck]

My second crack at Hamantashen. It didn't go too well last year. This year, it's Pam R's chocolate pastry with a raspberry-chocolate-nut filling.

[Abra]

I'll add my funny note, since I ended up making everything but hamantaschen. I made the Joan Nathan poppy seed filling, which is so good that it's hard not to eat it all up with a spoon. Fortunately, it makes an enormous amount - I halved the recipe and had at least a quart of filling. My carefully pinched hamantaschen flattened to disks in the oven, little poppy seed flying saucers. Next I tried pinwheels using the rest of the dough and some of the filling, which when sliced were ok, but nothing special.

But the real hit was a kind of bread pudding I made with the poppy seed filling. We had some leftover panettone that needed using up, so I slathered the slices with the poppy seed goo than poured an egg and milk mixture over it all, addning no sugar since the filling is already quite sweet. Baked, cooled, and sliced, I served this to a group of French people who all went nuts over it. Really, you should make the filling even if you're not making hamantaschen, it's wonderful.

[Fat Guy]

Thanks to our 3.5-year-old sous chef the Hamantashen this year are rather rustic in appearance. They taste good, though.

[Katie Meadow]

Abra, where can I find Joan Nathan's poppy seed filling recipe?

FG: what, no poppy seeds? Rustic is good--they look yummy, and very jammy.

[JFLinLA]

Well, let's see. I made yeasted dough with many, many fillings -- poppy, prune, apricot, blueberry, raspberry, Nutella, pecan-caramel, almond. I made the poppy and pecan caramel fillings, the rest were from jars or cans. I also made chocolate dough with apricot or cherry or Nutella filling. I made the gingerbread dough but even with a lot of flour and rolling between parchment, it completely shredded when I pulled the parchment apart. I've got more in the fridge but may try again.

Good Jewish mom that I am, I made a batch a week ago Sunday and put them in the mail last Monday to the kid in college on the other coast. Even paid extra to have them delivered faster. He didn't get them till yesterday, the following Monday. Very frustrating but suspect the problem is with the college mail room. He said they were good and they've completely disappeared already.

The larger batch I made this weekend was many, many dozens. Way more than we can eat. So, my kid still at home is taking them to school this week and the bulk of them were shared and enjoyed around the office.

I do this every year. Swear to myself that I've overdone it and will not do it again but then the year goes by and, well, you know the rest.

No, I didn't take pictures.

Now, on to thinking about Passover baking . . .

[rjwong]

No, I didn't take pictures.

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But I took one before I scarf them down later (in the next few minutes).

You should have seen the chocolate ones with cherry filling ...

[DanM]

I have made the gingerbread apricot hamantaschen. I am not a practiced hamantaschen folder and pincher, so I have a rather homely collection of cookies. But they taste divine, so I am not complaining.

I ran out of filling (Solo) just as I was finishing up, so I have three that are filled with ginger preserves. I wonder if they will be good or just Too Much. We'll see.

Thanks so much for the recipe and idea.

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Thanks for the idea and recipe!! I made these gingerbread hamantashens and I am getting requests for even more!!! These are a definate keeperand with a little experimentation, I will get people drooling at the sight of these.

Dan

[rachiesarah]

i have been inspired after pouring through this thread for the last few weeks.

i made 3 kinds. the chocolate and gingerbread recipes from recipe gullet and marcy goldman's "almost like-a-bakery traditional hamantaschen" which were fantastic.

i filled most of the chocolate ones with sweetened coconut mixed with corn syrup. (like a mounds of sorts) the gingerbread with apple butter after many taste testings. and the plain regular with diced dried apricot & apricot jam or diced dried cherry with cherry jam.

I will say that the gingerbread needed a lot more flour kneaded in to allow it to be rolled. I had made some thumbprints filled also with apple butter.

I used a regular glass to cut out the circles because I wanted smaller sized ones. There still is half of each dough in the fridge. I am thinking gingerbread with pumpkin butter.

The thicker I rolled the dough the better they held the triangle shape.

I have to practice my triangle pinching, but not bad for the first time I think.

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/12350462..._6528_63873.jpg

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/12350462...8_6528_1419.jpg

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/12350462..._6528_61693.jpg

*sorry i have not figured out to embed actual pictures.*

[abooja]

Nice. I may have to steal that coconut filling idea. I'm making Pam R's chocolate and Maida Heatter's orange-y hamantaschen doughs with, respectively, Pam R's idea for dried cherry filling and a date-orange-cinnamon filling from an Epicurious recipe. I may make a third plain dough today so that I can mix and match even more, perhaps making a caramel pecan filling and attempt a coconut filling.

BTW, I know I've missed the whole Purim boat, but then I'm not Jewish. My husband is, and he's not religious at all. Purim is just another excuse for me to bake.

[Abra]

Katie - the Joan Nathan recipe is upthread here. Beware, it makes an absolute ton. And since it's so delicious, it's hard not to eat a ton of it.

[Pam R]

There's lots of talk about hamantashen going on around here and only a couple of weeks until Purim. Any interesting flavour combinations being planned?

[Jmahl]

These are some hamantashen made a few weeks ago fulled with a canned poppy seed mix from Poland and a prune mix we came up with.

Recipe from the "Jewish Holiday Cookbook" by Gloria Kaufer Greene 1985.

[DanM]

There's lots of talk about hamantashen going on around here and only a couple of weeks until Purim. Any interesting flavour combinations being planned?

I have two unusual flavors planned... I have found meyer lemons and blood oranges in good supply, so I am thinking about meyer lemon curd and blood orange marmalade. I was also thinking about trying brioche dough for the hamantashens. But the gingerbread apricot lekvar recipe is still the favorite of many and I still get ravings and cravings for them.

Dan

[mgaretz]

I have done peanut butter and dark chocolate (together and separate), but this Purim I'm planning on just doing my grandmothers standard prune-orange-almond filling.

[DanM]

I have done peanut butter and dark chocolate (together and separate), but this Purim I'm planning on just doing my grandmothers standard prune-orange-almond filling.

Would you mind sharing the recipe? That sounds great!

[mgaretz]

I have done peanut butter and dark chocolate (together and separate), but this Purim I'm planning on just doing my grandmothers standard prune-orange-almond filling.

Would you mind sharing the recipe? That sounds great!

Here's the recipe (also on my blog):

Dough:

1 stick of unsalted butter (1/2 cup)

1 cup of sugar

3 1/2 cups of all purpose unbleached flour

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp sea or kosher salt

3 eggs

Filling:

16 ozs of prunes (aka Dried Plums)

Zest and juice from 1 medium orange

1/4 cup of dry-roasted almonds

To make the dough: Cut the stick of butter into 4-6 slices and put into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add in the sugar and run on a low speed with the standard mixing paddle until the butter and sugar are combined. Add in the three eggs and continue beating until well mixed. Now add in the flour, salt and baking powder and mix at medium speed until well combined. The dough should just come together – if it’s sticky, add some more flour. Chill well.

To make the filling: Put the nuts in your food processor (chopping blade) and pulse until they are finely chopped. Add the prunes to bowl along with the zest and juice from the orange. (You want the zest from the entire orange.) Run the processor until the prunes are well chopped and mixed with the nuts and orange – about 15-20 seconds.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the racks at 1/3 and 2/3. On well floured surface, roll out about 1/3 of the dough to somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8″ thick. Cut circles with a 3″ round cookie cutter. Stack the circles on a plate. Gather up the scraps and repeat (adding fresh dough as necessary) until all the dough is rolled and cut. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Take a dough circle and lay it flat on your work surface. Put a dollop (about 1/2 tbs) of filling into the center of the circle. Fold two edges of the circle to make the first point of the triangle. Pinch the dough together. Now fold up the remaining side of the dough and pinch the corners. It’s not necessary to close up the whole triangle – the filling can peek out the top a little. Transfer to the cookie sheet. Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough and filling.

Put one cookie sheet on each rack and bake for 12 minutes, switching the position of the top and lower sheets at 6 minutes. After 12 minutes, check to see if the dough is all firm – check some of the thicker ones. If they need a bit more time – turn off the oven heat and leave them in the oven for another minute or two. You don’t want to over bake them.

When they are done, remove from the oven and allow to cool on the sheets for about 5-6 minutes and then transfer the hamantaschen to cooling racks. Enjoy!

Notes: You can use salted butter instead of unsalted – if you do, leave the salt out of the dough. I like the prune filling but you can fill these with almost any kind of preserves (apricot is popular) or a poppy seed filling from a can. I have also made them with some chocolate and peanut butter.

[Lior]

I know it is last minute, but here is a HUngarian/Austrian pre world war 2 recipe passed down:

4 cups flour

200g butter

1/3 cup of oil

1/2 cup lukewarm milk with 1 tsp sugar and a "cube" of yeast, which measures about 50g-fresh yeast[/b (ferment/proof...)

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon rum

4 tablespoons sugar

3-4 tablespoons sour cream

lemon peel

cognac

method

blend all together. Divide into 4 balls and chill for 4 hours.

make into small hamentaschen and fill with poppy seed mixture or chopped nuts

[deensiebat]

Despite my best efforts of chilling the dough, overlapping the sides, sealing the corners with egg wash, and freezing the shaped cookies, all of my hamantaschen unfurled into something closer to open-faced jam tarts. This was the most triangular of the bunch:

Oops! Dough had 1 stick butter, 4 oz cream cheese, an egg yolk, and 1 1/3 cup flour. More flour? Any other suggestions? Totally rich and delicious, but kinda misses the 3 points.

[deensiebat]

Success! I removed the egg, upped the flour, and seriously overlapped the sides before baking. Recipe here. Filled with plum-rosemary and apricot jam from last summer. Only 2 out of 16 de-triangulated themselves in the oven.

[mgaretz]

Our synagogue is celebrating Purim tomorrow (Friday) so I made my hamantashen tonight (see recipe a few posts back):

Using a 3" round cookie cutter the yield was 55 hamantashen.

[JFLinLA]

Once again, I "honcho'ed" the hamantashen assembly line last Sunday. This was with the temple youth group kids in preparation for the carnival this weekend. Unfortunately there were only 4 kids who participated. However, we made about 300 that were frozen. The unused dough and fillings were put in the temple fridge and, I'm told, someone else took it from there. We made the usual and the newer flavors -- poppy, prune, apricot, raspberry, Nutella & pecan-caramel. We ran out of time and interest before we got to the almond filling.

This is the last time I do this 'cuz the youngest kid (who is youth group president) is graduating this year.

However, I will still make mine. But, this week was nuts so I didn't make any but will this weekend using my preferred yeasted dough.

[Lior]

I got into the demo mood while making my hamentaschen. Most also opened-very annoying and I am waiting to hear what to do from the source of the recipe!! Kind of sillyto demo this, but I am an egulleter so I guess I am allowed my pleasure...

The recipe again:

4 cups flour

200g butter

1/3 cup of oil

1/2 cup lukewarm milk with 1 tsp sugar and a "cube" of yeast, which measures about 50g-fresh yeast[/b (ferment/proof...)

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon rum

4 tablespoons sugar

3-4 tablespoons sour cream

lemon peel

cognac

method

blend all together. Divide into 4 balls and chill for 4 hours.

make into small hamentaschen and fill with poppy seed mixture or chopped nuts

Pictures:

mis en place:

proofing the yeast:

Making the poppy seed filling:

chilling the four balls:

Rolling the dough out:

Cutting:

Shaping and filling with poppy:

Shaping and filling with strawberry:

I need to take apic of them made. I was so disappointed that some opened that I forgot.

[Fat Guy]

For this year's mishloach manot the entire apartment was turned into a crazy Yiddish assembly line.

[abooja]

Success! I removed the egg, upped the flour, and seriously overlapped the sides before baking. Recipe here. Filled with plum-rosemary and apricot jam from last summer. Only 2 out of 16 de-triangulated themselves in the oven.

I made some great hamantaschen the other day using your recipe. I filled some with raspberry baker's jam and chocolate chips, cherry preserves and chocolate chips, and nutella. They were great! I actually liked them all equally, and I've never been a real fan of cherry filling. About two de-triangulated and, even then, were nice enough to serve to company, had I any company to serve them to. Thanks so much for the recipe and the inspiration. Rugelach-tasting hamantaschen are clearly the way to go.

[deensiebat]

Rugelach-tasting hamantaschen are clearly the way to go.

Ha! I actually make my ruggelach with a sour cream dough, but the basic tenet holds -- sneak in more butterfat than you thought possible, along with some sort of other tangy dairy, deal with the fuss of a soft and sticky dough, and be rewarded with tender, flaky deliciousness. So glad these worked out for you!