Earlier today I posted my Dairy Free Hamantaschen recipe. I also wanted to offer a butter-based dairy hamantaschen dough for those who prefer a more buttery flavored cookie. This dough produces a tender, sweet hamantaschen. While many who keep kosher prefer dairy-free cookies (so they can be served with a meat meal), others don’t mind adding butter to the mix. This dough provides a dairy hamantaschen option for your Purim menu.
I like this dough because it produces a rich, buttery, orange-scented cookie that is full of flavor. The dough will work with any hamantaschen filling, and it won’t open up/expand in the oven during baking, as long as you don’t overfill your cookies and your filling has the proper texture.
There are a few drawbacks–it needs to be thoroughly chilled before rolling out (it’s too sticky to roll at room temperature), and it is not as flexible to work with as my dairy free dough. That is the nature of butter doughs; when cold, butter becomes stiff, which in turn makes the dough somewhat stiff and tougher to shape. That said, if you have some experience with baking and working with butter dough, this one should pose no problems for you… in fact, it’s one of the easier butter doughs that I’ve worked with.
Note: if this is your first time making hamantaschen and/or butter dough, I recommend starting with my Dairy Free dough. It’s easier to work with than the buttery one, and the flavor is similar.
You can use any hamantaschen filling you like with this dough; I’ve linked to the filling recipes available on my site below. The key to a good filling is to make sure it is thick enough to prevent running, but not so thick that it bakes up dry or tough. All of these filling recipes are tasty, and they all have the proper texture for use in hamantaschen. I will update this list of fillings as I add new ones to the site.
Hamantaschen Fillings
Rabbi Olitzky’s Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Filling
For my Dairy Free Hamantaschen dough, click here. To learn more about the holiday of Purim, click here.
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Buttery Hamantaschen
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1-5 teaspoons water (if needed)
Instructions
- Slice room temperature butter into small chunks and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Add sugar to the bowl. Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar together for a few minutes till light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and orange zest to the bowl. Beat again till creamy and well mixed.
- Sift flour and salt into the bowl.Mix with the electric mixer on low speed till a crumbly dough forms.
- Begin to knead dough with hands till a smooth dough ball forms. Try not to overwork the dough, only knead till the dough is the right consistency. If the crumbles are too dry to form a smooth dough, add water slowly, 1 teaspoon at a time, using your hands to knead the liquid into the dough. Knead and add liquid until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky to the touch (not sticky), with a consistency that is right for rolling out. It can easily go from the right consistency to too wet/sticky, so add water very slowly. If the dough seems too wet, knead in a little flour till it reaches the right texture.
- Form the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 3 hours to overnight.
- Before you begin to assemble the hamantaschen, choose and make your filling and have it on hand to work with. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly flour a smooth, clean surface. Unwrap the dough disk and place it on the floured surface. The dough will be very firm after chilling.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. At the beginning, it will be tough to roll out-- you may need to pound it a bit. A heavy rolling pin works best. As you roll, cracks may form on the edges of the dough. Repair any large cracks with your fingers and continue rolling.When the dough reaches 1/4 inch thickness, scrape the dough up with a pastry scraper, lightly reflour the surface, and flip the dough over. Continue rolling the dough out very thin (less than 1/8 of an inch thick). The thinner you roll the dough, the more delicate and crisp the cookies will turn out-- just make sure that the dough is still thick enough to hold the filling and its shape! If you prefer a thicker, more doughy texture to your cookies (less delicate), keep the dough closer to 1/4 inch thick. Lightly flour the rolling pin occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Use a 3-inch cookie cutter (not smaller) or the 3-inch rim of a glass to cut circles out of the dough, cutting as many as you can from the dough.Gather the scraps and roll them out again. Cut circles. Repeat process again if needed until you've cut as many circles as you can from the dough. You should end up with around 35 circles (unless you've kept your dough on the thicker side, which will result in less cookies).
- Place a teaspoon of filling (whichever filling you choose) into the center of each circle. Do not use more than a teaspoon of filling, or you run the risk of your hamantaschen opening and filling spilling out during baking. Cover unused circles with a lightly damp towel to prevent them from drying out while you are filling.
- Assemble the hamantaschen in three steps. First, grasp the left side of the circle and fold it towards the center to make a flap that covers the left third of the circle.Grasp the right side of the circle and fold it towards the center, overlapping the upper part of the left side flap to create a triangular tip at the top of the circle. A small triangle of filling should still be visible in the center.
- Grasp the bottom part of the circle and fold it upward to create a third flap and complete the triangle. When you fold this flap up, be sure to tuck the left side of this new flap underneath the left side of the triangle, while letting the right side of this new flap overlap the right side of the triangle. This way, each side of your triangle has a corner that folds over and a corner that folds under-- it creates a "pinwheel" effect. This method if folding is not only pretty-- it will help to keep the cookies from opening while they bake.
- Pinch each corner of the triangle gently but firmly to secure the shape. If any cracks have formed at the places where the dough is creased, use the warmth of your fingers to smooth them out.Repeat this process for the remaining circles.
- When all of your hamantaschen have been filled, place them on a lightly greased baking sheet, evenly spaced.
- Place them in the oven and let them bake at 350 degrees for 10-25 minutes, until the cookies are cooked through and lightly golden. Start checking them at 10 minutes; because the dough thickness tends to vary on these cookies they can cook quite fast if rolled thin. In most ovens it will take around 15-20 minutes, but best to keep a close watch over them as they cook to avoid overcooking or burning.Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Store them in a tightly sealed plastic bag or Tupperware.
NOTES
Nutrition
Delicious recipe, thank you for sharing it! I’ve used this two years in a row and people say they’re the best they’ve ever had! I use 2 tsp each of vanilla and orange, and have also had great success replacing the orange with lemon. I filled with raspberry jam, nutella, apricot jam and some combos- the best combo yet has been natural peanut butter and raspberry jam. I drizzle with white chocolate once they’re cooled and add some cute round rainbow sprinkles.
So happy you’re enjoying this recipe Sara! A lot of readers have made it their “go to” each year, which is a wonderful feeling.
Flavor is great, but I found this dough so hard to work with. The circles would break apart or crumble slightly when folding, and I felt like the end product did not look pretty like the non-butter ones. Any tips to prevent the from falling apart when rolling and folding?!? I want to make hamentashens that are also a little more cake like. How can I do this? I think the recipe with butter tastes better.
Hi Lisa! Butter doughs are generally more difficult to work with. The cracking can sometimes be a result of too little moisture in the dough. It takes practice to get a feel for the dough and the correct liquid level, the dairy free dough is much easier to work with. I don’t have a cake-like hamantaschen recipe on the site, but thinking of developing one for the future. What you can do is bake this one until just baked through (only a little bit golden on the edges), which will give you a softer texture.
Honestly, the best hamantaschen dough I have ever made, the texture is right on! I personally am not fond of citrus zest so I simply left it out and the results were perfect, a tasty and buttery pastry that baked well and did not open up 🙂
Thank you! Will be using this recipe for Purim next year as well! Ronda
Wonderful Ronda! Happy to hear that. 🙂
Used the metric calculation for the recipe and actually had to add extra flour to the dough!
I wasn’t weighing the extra added flour, just mixed it in spoon by spoon till the dough looked tight enough. I think it was extra 50 gr or close to it.
280 gr + extra 50 gr of flour
Hi Daria, I hope the metric calculation is accurate! It’s auto-calculated by a mechanism on my site, so not something I check regularly. Thank you for providing the measurements you used, this may be helpful to other readers!
Hi Tori! First let me say that the cookies taste delicious! Definitely the best I’ve tasted. However, the dough was a nightmare to work with for me. It was too sticky and as I kept adding flour, it became much too dry. So much cracking and breakage. It took forever to roll out a nice sheet before another disaster to try to pick up the cookies after cutting with cookie cutter. Do you know what I could have done wrong? Like I said, they are very tasty, but a mess! They sadly looked nowhere near as neat as the picture. I’d love to try again!
Hi Marissa! As I mentioned to a reader above, butter doughs are generally more difficult to work with. The cracking can sometimes be a result of too little moisture in the dough. It takes practice to get a feel for the dough and the correct liquid level, the dairy free dough is much easier to work with. If you want to try that recipe next time, here is a link: https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/dairy-free-hamantaschen/ In my opinion the dairy free dough tastes very similar to the buttery, so worth trying.
They came out PERFECT and so tasty, such an easy recipe to follow, thank you!!!!
This is the best dough I’ve used yet! I like a softer cookie so I baked for only 13 min, just before they turned golden brown, and they came out perfect! I appreciate your wide range for baking time because the thickness of the cookie and how crunchy you like the cookie can really affect the time. I chilled overnight so the dough required some kneading before rolling out but I didn’t add any more flour or water and it rolled out perfectly, not breaking apart or dry.
Yes! Glad you appreciate the timing span, some people have wondered about that, but I think it’s really key to getting the texture of cookie that you want.
The pictures are very helpful and everything is simple and clear. 🙂
Could I use Chia seeds instead of poppy seeds in the filling recipe?
the raw dough is much tastier than the finished product. Maybe it needs a little orange oil too?
You could certainly add more orange flavor if you like. I’ve also added almond extract in the past which is really nice.
Thanks for the recipe!
Can I use demarara sugar in the dough? Or is it too thick and grainy?
This was a great recipe. I haven’t made them since I was a kid and wanted to with my kid. I made a little mistake in rolling them out (didn’t read the directions carefully enough) but in the end I figured it out and they came out great. Much better than the crumbly or leave-a-weird-coating-in-your-mouth other ones. We used the rolling pin from my great aunt, so it now makes 5 generations have used that piece of wood to make hamantaschen!
Wow Tori, This was an amazing recipe. I followed your explicit instructions and the hamantaschen came out perfectly. exactly like the picture (used the poppy seed filling). They are definitely the most delicious hamantaschen I have ever tasted.
Thank you so much. Can’t wait to try your other recipes. Sharon Epstein Modiin Israel.
I’ve been searching for a better, non-exploding dough for years, and here it is!
I took the liberty of using Mandarin orange zest instead of navel, and boy, what a sweet, lovely marriage it is with the vanilla!
Thanks for publishing this. I’m tickled.
I made these today, followed the recipe exactly. So delicious I just mixed up a second batch! Thank you! I have tried several of your recipes and they have all been wonderful. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome!
Is there no baking powder?
No. I found that baking powder made them more prone to opening during the baking process and didn’t make much of a difference at all in texture.
Hi Tori, this is the second year that my daughter is using your hamantaschen recipe and they are delicious. I just wonder if you have a recipe for walnut filing? Can I use the poppy seeds filing recipe and just to replace the poppy seeds with grounded walnuts? My mother used to fill them walnuts but, unfortunately, I don’t know how she was making it as most of her recipes she just knew them by heart. Thank you.
I don’t have a recipe, but that sounds intriguing! Might try it next year… 🙂
Would peanut butter filling work for this?
Could I put regular peanut butter as the filling or would I need to use peanut butter chips?
Hi Ellie, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. We have not tried a peanut butter filling, but I think it might work! I would suggest using peanut butter that doesn’t separate or require stirring as the extra oil might cause an issue with baking.
Lovely hamantaschen Tori. Dough rolls out beautifully. The step by steps are so clear. Thank you so much, Aleksa.
Tori,
Thanks for this recipe … I’m looking forward to making it. The process to make the dough isn’t that different from some sugar cookies I’ve made. I might try hitting the hamantaschen with an egg wash before baking.
If any of your readers do not have a 3″ cutter, I use an old tuna can as a cutter with a couple “vent” holes punches in bottom. It looks awful but works great. I’ve used it for southern-style biscuits as well as other things.
And speaking of sugar cookies, when I make mine, I add about 1/2 a teaspoon of almond extract to the dough. That little hint of almond makes them really complex and OH SO TASTY. Try it. You will not be disappointed.
Lastly, I’m a bit of a grammar geek .. and you have an error in step 12. Replace the word “less” with “fewer” so the last line reads ” … which will result in FEWER cookies.” Not trying to be critical, but stuff like this drives me nuts.