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Baking · Jewish

Hamantaschen

Buttery three-cornered Purim cookies with a jammy middle.

Hands-on
30 min
Hands-off
1 h 24 min
Total
1 h 54 min
Makes
16 cookies (16 to 20)
Serves
16

About 30 minutes of mixing, rolling and shaping. Passive time: 1 hour chilling the dough, 5 minutes chilling the shaped cookies, up to 9 minutes baking and 10 minutes cooling on the sheet, for one tray. The oven heats while you roll. The recipe this is based on lists 1 hour 40 minutes; we add the cooling time. Each extra tray adds about 15 minutes.

Oven 200 °C · 180 °C fan (400 °F)

Pan baking sheets lined with parchment; 7.5 cm round cutter (US: baking sheets lined with parchment; 3-inch round cutter)

  • medium
  • vegetarian
  • purim
  • holiday
  • kid-friendly
  • cookies

Verified against at least two trusted test kitchens or food-safety guides · Last checked · What this means

Illustration of Hamantaschen
Amount
Units
Oven

Ingredients

You need: large mixing bowl and electric mixer (or a wooden spoon and some muscle) · sieve for the dry ingredients · plastic wrap · rolling pin · 7.5 cm (3 in) round cookie cutter · 2 baking sheets lined with parchment · wire rack · oven mitts

Contains: wheat · egg · milk

Method

  1. Cream butter and sugar

    Beat the 113 g (1/2 cup) soft butter with the 149 g (3/4 cup) sugar until smooth.

  2. Add the wet ingredients

    Beat in the egg, 15 ml (1 tbsp) milk, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp lemon zest (if using) until everything is fully mixed.

  3. Add the dry ingredients

    Sift the 180 g (1 1/2 cups) flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt together, then mix them into the butter mixture just until no dry flour shows. If the dough is too soft to handle, add more flour a tablespoon or two at a time until it firms up.

    Ready when: A soft, smooth dough with no streaks of dry flour that holds together when pressed.

    Otto tried this firstOtto sneaks a spoonful of dough. Raw dough contains raw flour and raw egg, which can make you sick: wait for the baked cookie.

  4. Chill the dough

    Pat the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic and chill it for at least 1 hour (or up to 24 hours).

  5. Heat the oven

    Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F) and line two baking sheets with parchment.

  6. Roll and cut

    Dust the counter and the dough with flour. Roll the dough to about 6 mm (1/4 in) thick. Cut rounds with the 7.5 cm (3 in) cutter, dipping it in flour before each cut so it doesn't stick, and set them on the lined sheets. Press the scraps together and re-roll.

    Otto tried this firstOtto uses a smaller glass because the cutter is 'somewhere'. Little rounds can't hold the jam, which boils up and pushes the walls down. Use the full 7.5 cm (3 in) size.

  7. Fill and pinch

    Put 1/2 tsp of apricot preserves in the middle of each round. Fold up two sides to make an A shape, then fold up the third side, and pinch all three corners together tightly. Lean the walls in toward the filling instead of standing them straight up; leave a little filling showing in the middle.

  8. Chill the shapes

    Put the tray in the fridge for 10 minutes or the freezer for 5 minutes so the cookies hold their shape in the oven.

    Ready when: The shaped cookies feel firm and cold to the touch.

  9. Bake

    Bake one tray at a time for 7 to 9 minutes. Start checking at 7 minutes.

    Ready when: The tops are barely golden and the corners are just starting to brown. The jam will be bubbling hot.

  10. Cool

    Leave the cookies on the hot sheet for at least 10 minutes, until firm enough to lift, then move them to a wire rack. Let the filling cool before eating.

Swaps

  • Instead of butter and dairy milk: margarine and a non-dairy milk, same amounts Makes the cookies dairy-free. Check the margarine label, as some contain milk.
  • Instead of apricot preserves: another thick filling such as poppy seed filling, prune filling or a thick jam Honey-poppy seed, apricot and prune are the classic fillings. Keep to 1/2 tsp per cookie.

Make ahead, store & reheat

Make ahead
The dough can be made up to 24 hours ahead and kept wrapped in the fridge.
Storage
Store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Freeze them, well wrapped, for longer storage.

If something goes wrong

  • Cookies opened up or the walls fell over in the oven Why: Rounds too small, too much filling, walls standing straight up, or dough too warm.
    Use a full 7.5 cm (3 in) cutter, use a little less filling, angle the walls in toward the middle and chill the shaped cookies well before baking. Bake two as a test before doing the whole tray.
  • Jam runs out and pools on the parchment Why: Thin jam boils and spreads in the heat.
    Stir plain dried breadcrumbs into the preserves, about 1 part crumbs to 10 parts jam by weight (about 6 g for 64 g of jam), to hold it in place.
  • Dough sticks to the cutter or counter Why: The dough is warm or the cutter wasn't floured.
    Dip the cutter in flour before each cut, and put the dough back in the fridge for a few minutes if it gets soft.

Good to know

  • Fold two sides first to make an A, then bring up the third: it gives the neatest triangle.
  • Bake a tray while the next one chills, so every batch goes in cold.

Safety

  • Don't eat or taste the raw dough: it contains raw flour and raw egg, which can make you sick. Don't let kids play with raw dough either.
  • The jam filling comes out of the oven bubbling and holds heat; let the cookies cool before biting in.
  • The oven and baking sheets are very hot. Kids are great at cutting rounds and pinching corners; an adult should move trays in and out of the oven.