Hamantaschen are filled triangle-shaped cookies that are traditional to eat on Purim. The name translates literally to “Haman’s pockets” but the shape is said to represent either the pockets, the ears or the hat of Haman, the villain in the Purim story. Fillings can range from fruit to chocolate to even savory things, but poppyseed is classic! It is sweet, sticky, and nutty.
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr 20 min |
| Active: | 55 min |
| Yield: | 2 dozen |
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup poppy seeds
- 1/2 cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Pinch kosher salt
- Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/3 cup unrefined coconut oil, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling the dough
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup sprinkles of your choice
Instructions
- For the filling: Finely grind the poppy seeds, in batches if necessary, in a spice or coffee grinder. Transfer to a small saucepan and stir in the almond milk, sugar, honey, vanilla, salt and lemon zest and juice. Bring to a rapid simmer and cook, stirring often, until thick and jammy (if you draw a spoon across the bottom of the pan, you will see a line), 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool completely. (You can refrigerate to expedite the process.)
- For the dough: Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the coconut oil and sugar in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the lemon zest and 2 of the eggs, then beat until very smooth, about 1 minute. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat on medium-low just until the dough comes together and cleans the side of the bowl. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill until the dough firms up enough to be rolled but is not so cold that it will crack, about 15 minutes. (You can make the dough ahead and refrigerate, but let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes or so before rolling.)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Beat the remaining egg with a splash of water. Cut the dough in half. Roll one piece on a floured work surface to about 1/8-inch thick. Use a 3-inch ring cutter to cut out as many circles as you can, saving the scraps. To form the hamantaschen, brush a circle with the egg wash and dollop about a teaspoon of filling in the center. Fold the dough up into 3 corners to form a triangle with the filling exposed in the middle. (Don’t worry if the hamantaschen don’t look completely full at this point; the filling expands as it bakes.) Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining circles and dough half, rerolling the scraps once, if desired.
- Have your sprinkles standing by. Brush the hamantaschen with the egg wash (just the dough, not the filling). Bake, rotating the trays from top to bottom halfway through baking, until the filling is bubbly and the dough is set and light golden, about 12 minutes. While the filling is still hot, top with the sprinkles. Let cool before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 24 servings |
| Calories | 139 |
| Total Fat | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 22 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 13 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Cholesterol | 23 mg |
| Sodium | 53 mg |
Reviews
I did not make the filling but the dough was the best I’ve ever made and I’ve tried many different recipes. So easy to work with! I’ve made it the last 2 years.
I made this recipe as written except I substituted macadamia nut milk for the almond milk (because that’s what I had on hand) and I substituted Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour in place of regular flour. This came out very good, albeit it was my first time making hamantaschen so they did not come out perfect (some did) shape-wise. But it was fun, pretty easy, the dough was easy to work with. Tasty cookie, very tender. I got 22-23 cookies out of this recipe. I had extra poppyseed filling leftover (it’s yummy on it’s own or over ice cream). I would thicken the filling longer and let it cool longer as it was a little loose. Still tasty though. All in all, a good filled cookie. I haven’t had these in years. I would make these again.
C.J.B. And why did you not share your magnificent recipe
My husband loves my current recipe for Hamantashen so I didn’t try Molly’s recipe. However, I did incorporate her technique using the egg wash before & after filling and it took my recipe from wonderful to fabulous! My husband said “bakery quality” and he never says things like that. Thanks Molly!
What an easy and delish recipe. Everything came together beautifully! My family loved them. It makes a lot of filling but I think I’ll double the cookie dough next time and freeze it. Or freeze the filling in a ziploc! The cookies just look adorable with the sprinkles. Oh don’t forget to egg wash the cookie— it does make a difference! Yummy!
I made the whole recipe but was skeptical about the poppyseed filling. I hated mohn hamantashen as a child but I was hoping that a homemade poppyseed filling would be a game changer. The filling was okay. However, I don’t think it’s a shortcoming of the recipe but my own tastebuds not cooperating. That said, I want to talk about the dough. The dough is magnificent! It came together easily and was so easy to work with. I made a few mohn (poppyseed) and then switched over to a berry jam filling which paired so nicely with the bit of lemon in the dough. The trick with the egg wash is genius! I never had such beautiful hamantashen before. This recipe is a keeper and I will be using it for years to come!
I enjoyed the filling, although it was a unique taste that I think people who are not used to it may not like. However, the dough was dry and needed to be rolled out to 1/16″ not 1/8″. I wish that recipes wouldn’t put specific measurements if they didn’t mean them! If you do 1/8″, you’ll get 12 cookies with lots of filling left over. Thinner dough also helps with the dryness.