Saturday's Something Good: Hamentashen

Happy Purim! It’s a Jewish holiday if you didn’t know and this one (like most of them), comes with some delicious desserts. One of my favorite memories is picking out what fillings we were using that year, making hamentashen with my mom and then putting together the goodie baskets for all of our friends and family. Each year we would experiment with different fillings, trying to figure out which one was the best. While the default for most people is apricot and cherry, my favorites are chocolate, apple, or raspberry.

Another thing about these cookies is that my mom and I have worked for years to find the perfect hamentashen recipe. Like a chocolate chip cookie, so many different things can make or break this recipe. After years of searching we finally found the best one so I was so happy when my mom surprised me by sending me a box of homemade hamentashen with our favorite recipe!

Now I’m sharing it with you! Go forth and make yourself some delicious cookies.

Treat yo’ self 🙂

Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup of Milk

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 1/2 teaspoon baking power

1 egg

1 yolk

1 to 2 tablespoons of water

a pinch of sugar

1 Can of Filling (this could be apple pie filling, raspberry filling, chocolate, apricot)

Directions

1. Mix together the shortening, butter, and sugar.

2. Add in the eggs, milk, and vanilla

3. Fold in the flour, salt, and baking powder mixture.

4. Mix to form soft dough and let the dough to rest 10 minutes.

5. Create an egg wash with the 1 egg, 1 yolk, 1 to 2 tablespoons of water, and a pinch of sugar.

6. Roll out the dough until it’s about 1/2 inch thick. Use a cup to cut out circles and then lightly brush each circle with the egg wash.

7. Put a dab of the filling in the center of each circle (this could be anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon depending on how big your circles are).

8. For each circle, pinch together the corners until it forms a triangle.

9. Brush each circle with the egg wash and lay each cookie on the baking sheet.

10. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 18 to 25 minutes until the cookies are golden brown.