It’s almost Purim! Time to celebrate the triumph of the Jews over Haman’s plot with some tasty cookies. In case you’re not familiar with story of Purim, visit http://www.aish.com/h/pur/b/48970736.html.
Anyway…as I’ve mentioned, Mike and I are an interfaith Jewish-Catholic couple, so we have a lot to celebrate. This was my first experience making hamantashen, and I must say I was thoroughly humbled by the process. Folding circles of quick-to-tear dough into pinwheels/triangles is much, much more difficult than one may imagine. Next time, I’ll try a different recipe, but if I were to make these again, I wouldn’t chill the dough for nearly as long so that it would remain as pliable as possible.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, cut into small pieces, softened
- 2 egg yolks
- Zest of 1 large orange
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 10-ounce jar poppy seed filling
Preparation
Combine butter, egg yolks, orange zest, flour, and salt in a food processor.
Pulse until dough forms.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead very gently, just until the dough comes together. Chill briefly, about 20 minutes, until dough is easy to handle.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll out dough to ¼ inch thickness and cut with a round, 2 ½ inch cookie cutter or drinking glass. Gently press the circles between your palms to make them more pliable if necessary.
Place circles on your cookie sheet, and using the tip of your finger, lightly brush the edge of each circle with water.
Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle.
Fold dough to form a pinwheel/triangle shape; begin with the left side and fold inward, then fold the right side inward, leaving some of the filling exposed. Fold up the bottom, tucking the right bottom edge under the right side of the triangle, and folding the left bottom edge over the left side of the triangle.
Bake for 15 minutes, until light golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack.
amy bakes in the 'burgh 
Amy, this looks like a photo out of a cookbook. I am very impressed, and a little intimidated by your mad baking skills. And if they taste as good as they look–which they probably do–then holy wow! 🙂
Thanks, Barb!! I have to say, they are pretty tasty.
Amy, I love poppyseed desserts! I have often seen this recipe on the Solo can, but never tried it. I wouldn’t worry about the shapes. They are hand made with love, not rolled off a conveyor belt. Beauty is in the tongue of the taster, er, something like that.
Thanks, Carrie! I appreciate that very much. These were very tasty, even if they didn’t look as perfect as I would have liked. I’ll have to make some more and send you some of them 🙂