Hamantaschen
Melt in your mouth shortbread cookie filled with a sweet or savory jam. OY!, What's not to love
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer
Ingredients
Cookie
- 170 gram Butter Unsalted, good stuff
- 150 gram Granulated Sugar
- 5 gram Salt
- 12 gram Lemon Zest
- 1/8 tsp Lemon Essance Oil
- 420 gram AP Flour Unbleached, please
- 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger A dough enhancer, use one or the other
- 20 grams Dry Milk Powder A dough enhancer, use one or the other
- 3 tbsp Corn Starch
- 2 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1 ea Egg Jumbo
- 1 ea Egg Yolk Keep the white
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence Optional
Filling(s) Non Traditional
- Apricot Jam Very Thick
- Peanut Butter Very Thick
- Nutella Very Thick
- Lemon Curd Very Thick
Poppy Seed Filling
- 8 oz Poppy Seeds
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 1/4 cup Honey
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 2 ea Eggs Jumbo, Beaten
Instructions
Cookie
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, salt, and flavorings until light and fluffy.
- Add the remaining ingredients and mix until a cohesive dough forms.
- Divide the dough in half, wrap it well, and refrigerate it for 1 hour.
Assembly
- Line your sheet pans with parchment paper, or baking sheets
- Working with one half of the dough at a time, flour it thoroughly, and roll it into a rectangle approximately 1/8" thick.
- Cut the dough into circles with a 3 1/2" round cutter. Place the circles on the prepared baking sheets.
- Place a rounded teaspoonful of filling in the center of each circle.
- Brush the edges of the dough with the reserved egg yolk, which you've beaten with 1 tablespoon water.
- Bring three of the "sides" together to meet in the center, forming what looks like an old-fashioned tricorne hat. Pinch the edges together to seal.
- Put the trays with the cookies back into the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Bake the hamantaschen for 12 to 14 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottom and edges.
- Transfer them to a wire rack to cool; they'll firm up and become crisp as they cool.
Poppy Seed Filling
- Grind the poppy seeds in a coffee grinder in batches for about 15-20 seconds per batch, until they are ground soft and powdery.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Whisk in the milk, sugar, honey and salt.
- Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, till the sugar dissolves and the honey melts.
- Pour about 1 cup of the hot liquid into a cup.
- Temper the eggs with the cup of hot liquid.
- Slowly pour the heated, tempered egg mixture back into the hot liquid in the saucepan, whisking constantly.
- Continue to whisk and cook for 3-5 more minutes over medium heat till the mixture thickens and turns light yellow.
- It is ready when it thickly coats the back of a spoon.
- Remove the saucepan from heat.
- Whisk the ground poppy seeds into the buttery liquid and stir well to blend all ingredients.
- Allow filling to cool to room temperature before using.
Notes
A classic hamantasch has two parts, the cookie, and the filling.
The cookie is a classic shortbread, but I have significantly cheated by cutting puff pastry rounds.
The fillings are a different matter; the choices are endless:
The traditional poppy seed filling, as described above.
Any STIFF jam works (read that as High Fructose content):
- Apricot
- Apple
- Blackberry
- Black Currant
- Cherry
- Orange
- etc
- Lemon Curd
- Nutella
- Chocolate
Nutrition
Calories: 1432kcalCarbohydrates: 172gProtein: 21gFat: 78gSaturated Fat: 35gPolyunsaturated Fat: 20gMonounsaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 2gCholesterol: 128mgSodium: 1728mgPotassium: 1270mgFiber: 15gSugar: 101gVitamin A: 1535IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 1313mgIron: 10mg
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