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
I made thirteen flavours this year including a savoury one. Your dough has been my go-to for a few years now. Everyone loves these hammies!
I haven’t ever tried making butter Hamentaschen dough before so I didn’t know what to expect – but these turned out pretty well! The step-by-step video was very helpful, and the written instructions with photos were clear. I made a double batch two weeks ago and froze the dough. It thawed with no problems overnight in the fridge. Thanks so much for helping create a memorable Purim for our family during lockdown. Chag Sameach!
I’m revising my review to 5 stars. These somehow got better the next day. I kept them in a container in the days leading up to Purim and they tasted fantastic and had a pleasing firm but tender texture. The orange zest and vanilla really adds something as well even with 5 different fillings and mini choc chips rolled into some of the dough. This will be my dairy recipe from now on. Excellent Hamentaschen. The family loved it.
Perfect buttery Hamantashen. I also made the caramel apple filling and the poppy seed filling and both turned out amazing. Thank you!
These are buttery and tender. Very simple to make and I rolled mini chips into one batch and put a chocolate ganache center in another. My new favorite recipe for Purim.
Love your recipes but Please, Please, Please give metric or imperial units.
This side of the pond, cups mean absolutley nothing. You cannot buy measuring equipment scaled to US measures.
Hi John, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. We do provide metric units for all recipes. Just above the list of recipe ingredients you can click “Metric” and it will change the measurements over.
Excellent! Everyone loved these. I’m not used to making dough so was intimidated. You’re instructions were clear and easy to follow. Will make again.
I made these last year and they got rave reviews from everyone.
Can the unfilled dough be made a week ahead and frozen, then thawed in the refrigerator overnight? I got so many requests that I’m making 4X the recipe and would like to break it into parts.
Ashley said that the filled cookies could be frozen and then baked, but I’d prefer not to freeze the whole cookies, lest they get smooshed in the freezer.
Thanks!
Hi Jenn, I’ve never tested that but I think it would probably work fine.
I made this recipe today. I wouldn’t make it again. It has little taste after it’s cooked. I wanted something with a sweeter taste, and this was bland. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Sorry to hear that! This recipe has been well loved by so many, but I guess it can’t be to everyone’s taste.
Made these today for the first time. They are delish! I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour 1:1. I am ecstatic with the results. Thank you for all your tips. The only trouble I had was not being able to find the oven temp and how long to cook them. Looked at other recipes and settled on 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.
I’ve made other hamentash recipes before but couldn’t pass up one with “buttery” in the title. While this dough is delicious and easy to make in a stand mixer, I found it extremely hard to work with. I’m a very experienced home baker with all the necessary tools (Silpat, parchment, various rolling pins, etc.) but found the dough broke and cracked too easily. As always when making an unfamiliar recipe, I followed the instructions to the letter. I chilled the dough overnight and rolled it from the fridge as instructed, using as little flour as possible on the Silpat as I rolled it out. When I began forming the hamentashen, the dough cracked terribly. The cookies were delicious, no question about that! But forming them was, sadly, no fun. Perhaps you can suggest how I could tweak your recipe.
Hi Ann, it really comes down to a “feel” for the dough. You must add water until it is flexible and slightly tacky to the touch. Cracking indicates you didn’t add enough liquid to the dough. While the dough may crack slightly as they form, it should be easy to mend the cracks and shouldn’t be difficult to shape. Check out the video on this page for more details on the texture you’re going for. Butter doughs are tougher to work with, and take some time to master – I went through dozens of butter-based doughs before really understanding the texture needed. I tried my best to describe the result you’re looking for in the recipe. Glad they tasted amazing!
Thank you Tori! I much prefer a butter dough to an oil one. I was able to patch the dough and to re-roll the scraps well enough. I’ll make another batch and try again. After all, I have enough butter on hand to make 300 hamentaschen for my temple (in gift bags for a socially-distanced Purim celebration), so it’ll be worth it!
Wonderful! Hope it goes better next time. What a nice thing you’re doing! Early chag sameach. 🙂
I had the same experience—I found the dough quite challenging to work with although I am also a very experienced home baker. After chilling in the fridge for 4 hours it was like a steel plate, impossible to work. After sitting out for a while to warm up, it rolled out OK, but cracked constantly when I was forming the cookies. (I actually thought the dough was a little too wet when I made it in the stand mixer, and didn’t add any water to it at all.) I do give high marks for the lekvar filling recipe being pretty much exactly the correct quantity needed for this dough recipe, which almost never happens!
Like many other reviews, I am likewise not Jewish. I grew up in Poland and remembered having one of those with prunes at Farmers Market when I was about five years old. It was a joy to devour just one of them and wait for another market trip with my grandmother to consume more. After arriving in the USA, I was on the hunt for Polish food and have discovered a Jewish deli. I found hamantashen again, even ones made with prunes. I had no clue as to where they originated from. I just baked them; they look and taste better than a deli.
I don’t come from a Jewish background but my wife is of Ashkenazi descent. She said these tasted exactly like the ones she had as a kid at her temple. I thought they were delicious and probably made them a bit too thick (made 32). Used Bonne Maman preserves (of course!). Thanks for a great recipe and such clear instructions!
I just found this recipe and comments. You confirmed my idea of using Bonne Maman preserves as a filling idea. Thank you for your comment. I will definitely try to bake them now ! 😃
Holy Cow! I am so glad I found this recipe. I do not come from a Jewish background so have never had the joy of trying these. I have a friend that I wanted to send a CoronaCare package to and I decided to try a new cookie recipe and somehow these popped up in one of my searches and then I found your site and the rest is history! They are super delicious. Didn’t change a thing. Did find that my dough was still a bit tacky before refrigerating but left it that way and decided to see what refrigeration would do for it. Rolled out just fine with maybe a bit of extra flour on the rolling surface and pin. Made the apricot filling and Rabii Olitzky’s cream cheese filling. Haven’t tried his yet but the apricot was awesome. Thanks for posting this
Great recipe,. I added some lemon zest & juice to the dough. I used apricot, prune & marmalade for filling. Came out great. Thanks for a great recipe ,,Roger.
Great Recipe! I substituted Lemon zest and used a blood orange preserve as a filling, then sprinkled with a tad of powdered sugar. Amazing 🙂
This is exactly what I was hoping for! I just used some smuckers raspberry preserves as the filling and they were SO GOOD. Perfect Hamantaschen recipe!
This dough was great! I saw all the comments about being harder to work with because it was a butter dough and I was a little concerned, but I figured out it just has to be at the right temperature and has to be rolled really thin to work well. I just have one question – why was there no baking powder included in this dough? I ended up adding it because I’ve never seen a hamentaschen recipe without it and I was concerned.
I purposely left it out because it doesn’t seem to change the end result/texture (based on my testing), and adding it makes the cookies more prone to bursting open.
Can you freeze the dough? If yes, how long can it stay in the freezer and what are instructions for using the frozen dough once you are ready?
Hi Ashley, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. These should bake from frozen fine, I think– Tori hasn’t tried this method, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. They will keep for 2-3 days in a covered airtight container, too.
So good! I didn’t have pie filler but I did use strawberry jam in it’s place. It was a nice gooey center and crisp crust. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
This dough is the best: bakes up delicious and always stays closed over the filling! Thank you so much!