Last updated on September 4th, 2022.
Delicious, melt in the mouth traditional hamentashen cookie recipe. An easy one-bowl recipe that can be your next Purim tradition.
Don’t forget to check out this S’mores Hamentashen and Biscoff butter Hamentashen cookies.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Or, as Jewish history taught us when someone tries to kill you, turn him into a cookie. Which is how we got HAMENTASHEN.
Yep. IT IS HAMENTASHEN TIME. ( Let me hear you say YEAH!!!!!!).
This triangle filled cookie is named after Hamen.
Hamen was a not so nice dude who wanted to kill all the Jews a long time ago in Persia. He failed and we turned him into a cookie, Which we eat every year during Purim. The holiday to celebrate the victory.
I have to say, for someone so mean, Hamen has it good.
I mean these cookies are AMAZING, and this is a very easy Hamentashen recipe! As you take your first bite, you inhale the sweet powdered sugar. Your mouth is filled with crumbly pastry that quickly melts in your mouth only so you can taste the extra texture of the delightful filling. Perfect harmonious.
Baking Hamentashen (or hamantashen, or hammentashen) is a great activity to enjoy with the kids. When Emily was in preschool, I used to bake these with her class. The kids LOVE how they make magic and turn a circle into a triangle.
These can be baked dairy or Parve (nondairy); see the recipe below for both options.
Now let’s Talk about this Hamentashen recipe!
- Do not overfill the cookie, a tiny drop (1/4-1/2 teaspoon) is perfect. If you do, the filling will overflow and/or flatten the cookie.
- To give the cookie an extra “omph” pipe extra filling into the center of the cookie AFTER it has cooled and you sprinkled some powdered sugar.
- After applying the filling, before shaping, use a small brush dipped in egg white and apply some around the side of the cookie. This will be the glue that helps the cookie to stick.
- After shaping, before baking FREEZE the cookie for a minimum of 30 minutes (or days in advance). This will make sure the cookie will keep its shape and prevent it from spreading.
- If you decide to freeze days in advance, make sure you lay a baking sheet between the layers so the cookies will not stick.
- But, DO NOT WORRY. If some cookies do lose their shape, so what? Hamen won’t mind.
For the Parve (no dairy) version:
- Firstly, replace the Butter with Margarine.
- Secondly, replace the Sour cream with 2 TBS orange juice + 2 TBS Lemon juice OR 4 TBS unsweetened apple sauce
HAPPY BAKING!!!
Here are some more cookies recipes you might like:
Also, one more thing…
Don’t forget to tag @OneSarcasticBaker on Instagram if you bake this recipe. I would love to see your creations!
Love this recipe? Save it to your Cookies or Baking boards
Hamentashen
Ingredients
- 3 cups AP Flour (360 g/ 12.5 oz)
- 1 TBS Baking powder
- 1/2 cup Sugar (100 g / 3.5 oz)
- 2 Sticks Unsalted butter, soften (225 g / 8 oz)
- 2 large Egg yolks
- 4 TBS Sour cream
- 1 TSP Vanilla ext.
- 1 Cup Nutella, poppy seeds filling or jam for filling
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350F and line two cookie pans with parchment paper.
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Place ingredients in a big bowl, and mix with your hands until a dough form.
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Divide the into 4 pieces.
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Flour the surface of your work area and roll each piece 1/4" thick.
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Cut the rolled dough to a 2″ circles and apply 1/4 teaspoon of filling in the center of the dough.
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Use the egg white leftover to brush some around the edges of the cut circles.
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Form a triangle by lifting each circle with your two index fingers and pinching the corner where the dough meets. Repeat with the other two corners.
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If time permits, place the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator or freezer for about 30 minutes.
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Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before sprinkling sugar.
Hi, I see that you mentioned butter could be replaced but I don’t see butter in the list of ingredients. Hoping to make these this week! Thanks!
Thank you, Yana for pointing this out!
I have no idea what happen to the recipe, but I will correct it now. The recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter, soften.
I was just teaching my kids about the story of Esther. Though we are LDS, I worked for years at our local Federation and have an almost ridiculous adoration for hamentaschen; we would get huge platters every year from all over the community with all types of filling and I fell in love. I’ll probably make some with prunes and apricots but my kids are really excited for raspberry and chocolate:) Thank you for both the story and the perfect recipe.
Thank you Emma!
Hamantashen are so addictive and delicious I would love to think they are for all to enjoy. And I love the story about Esther (yay for girl power!!!) Thank you so much for sharing!
This recipe would be great using prunes or apricot.
Thank you for this incredible recipe! The dough came together easily and tastes similar to a light, delicious scone. Your tips were so helpful! Followed every one of them and these came out perfect! I don’t think I can wait until next purim to bake them again. Will be my go to recipe for Hamentashen from now on!
yay! I am so happy to hear that Marilyn!
I always make 4-5 batches as well!
I might have missed this. What do you use for the chocolate filling? Can’t wait to try this. It looks delicious.
I just use Nutella.
do you have suggestions for fillings?
sure, you can use any jam, poppy seeds filling, peanut butter, or cookie butter
Great recipe, very easy to follow and turned out incredibly delicious. This is my go to recipe from now on, thank you for sharing.
That is wonderful, so glad you enjoyed this recipe.
I plan to make this recipe soon. I’m thinking it’s similar to shortbread. I’m wondering if it’s possible to make these like refrigerator cookies…make a long roll, chill, then slice, fill, and form? what do you think?
Refrigerator cookies usually have a large amount of butter that tends to melt as we roll it or slice it, the refrigerator help maintain the solid texture. This dough is not very “oily”, it is very stable and will not melt as you roll it and slice it. It might however dry out if kept in the fridge for too long before rolling. If you want to bake the cookies ahead of time, make the dough roll, shape, and fill then freeze in a container for up to 3 months. I always freeze these cookies since it prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their triangle shape.
Looking forward to make big these for my Jewish friends, no salt?
Yay! You can add 1/2 teaspoon of salt but not a must
Looking at NY times hamantaschen recipes, they don’t call for any leavening, whereas you call for 1Tbl BP, thoughts?
The NY times’ recipe calls for less flour and less sugar and uses food processor which helps to incorporate air. My recipe uses the baking powder to aerate and lighten the dough. My guess is that the NY time’s recipe is more tender and mine is more crumbly. (And also the most delicious 😉)
Delicious!
Comments: I rolled dough out to 1/8 inch, felt 1/4 inch was too thick. Also, refrigerated dough before rolling out, made it easier to work with. Need to work on shaping, my cookies flattened out too much, maybe use less than 1 TBL baking soda.
You may have filled it with too much filling.did you remember to brush the edges?