My dear friend who is an enthusiastic baker has three favorite hamentashen cookie recipes. Since I can’t readily pick between them I tend to make all three.
From my friend’s childhood friend comes:
Flo Braker’s Hamantashen Dough
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 pound margarine
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream the sugar with margarine. Beat eggs with OJ and vanilla, add to butter/sugar. Add dry ingredients and mix. Shape dough into disks and chill. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness, cut into circles, fill with choice of filling and shape into triangles. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 15 -18 minutes or until lightly browned.
Options: Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired, before baking.
Roll dough in mixture of granulated sugar and flour for a sparkle effect
OK, this one might really be my favorite because I love brown sugar AND oatmeal.
Brown Sugar and Oat Hamantashen Dough
1 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
Beat butter, sugar, orange peel, and cinnamon until blended in a large bowl. Beat in egg. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl. Add to butter mixture and beat until thoroughly blended, at least 5 minutes on medium speed with mixer. Chill 1 hour in the refrigerator. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness, cut into circles, fill with choice of filling and shape into triangles. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Optional icing:
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon each orange-flavored liqueur and water
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
Blend together until smooth. Spread on cooled hamentashen. Set at room temperature until firm.
My friend is an inveterate recipe explorer so she found this one.
Pasta Frolla
(Italian pastry/cookie dough)
2 ¼ cups (300 grams) all purpose flour
½ cup (100 grams) sugar
Pinch salt
1 ¾ sticks (200 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
grated zest of one lemon
Cream the butter and the sugar in a mixer bowl with the paddle until pale and creamy. Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and lemon zest, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the four and salt and mix until the dough comes together and is consistent but still soft. Be carful not to over mix or the pastry will be tough.
Wrap dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour but no longer than 1 day. (Freeze if you need to store longer.)
Let dough stand at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before rolling out. Longer if frozen. Knead briefly on a lightly floured surface. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness, cut into circles, fill with choice of filling and shape into triangles. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
Hamentashen Fillings
Apricot Filling
6 ounces dried California apricots
3 T. granulated sugar
2 t. grated orange rind
Cover the apricots with boiling water in a small pan. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Cool. Drain apricots, reserving the cooking liquid. Chop drained apricots in food processor. Add sugar, 2-3 T. cooking liquid and the grated orange rind. Process until pureed. Cool before using. Refrigerate for up to a week.
Prune Filling
6 ounces dried pitted prunes
2 T. granulated sugar
2 t. grated lemon rind
(1/4 cup chopped walnuts, raisins)
Cover the prunes with boiling water in a small pan. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Cool. Drain prunes, reserving the cooking liquid. Chop drained prunes in food processor. Add sugar, 2-3 T. cooking liquid and the grated lemon rind. Process until pureed. Stir in walnuts and/or raisins if desired. Cool before using. Store in refrigerator for up to a week.
Poppy Seed (Mohn) Filling
1 cup whole or ground poppy seeds
½ cup milk or water
¼ cup honey
1/8 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 egg
(3 T. almond paste)
If using whole poppy seeds, use coffee grinder to grind in batches. Add to a small pan with milk or water, honey, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Beat in the egg and almond paste, if desired. Return to heat briefly if too thin. Cool before using. Store covered in refrigerator for up to a week.
About the Baker:
My friend is Laurie Leiber and she has a fun cook-along-with-her business called Bake Your Own Amazing Bagels. Her site aptly describes her this way:
Laurie Leiber has been teaching ordinary people how to bake extraordinary bagels for over a decade. Leiber’s passion for authentic, naturally fermented bagels has always been more than a business—it’s an obsession.
You can watch Laurie form hamentashen here. You’ll need a password to see the Zoom video; it’s B=9iX+y*.
Laurie has an upcoming bagel making class Saturday, March 18, from 11am to 2pm. You contact her at leiberlaurie@gmail.com if you want more details about joining in!