It’s that time of year again… time to break out the bakeware and get into a “triangular” state of mind! The Jewish holiday of Purim is all about triangle-shaped foods– classic Jewish baked goodies like bourekas, sambusak, and of course hamantaschen cookies.
In the story of Purim, it is said that the villain Haman wore a triangular hat everywhere he went. Triangular foods like hamantaschen have three corners to represent Haman’s hat. My husband grew up in Israel calling these cookies oznei haman, which translates from Hebrew to “Haman’s ears.”Apparently, in some versions of the story, haman has triangular ears.
There is also a theory out there that Haman had triangular pockets, since the word hamantaschen literally translates from Yiddish as “Haman’s pockets” (I tend to think the translation has more to do with the fact that these cookies are filled, like little pockets of dough). A more poetic interpretation links the three corners of the triangle shape to the three founding fathers of Judaism—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Whatever the reason, it’s traditional to eat triangular foods like hamantaschen on Purim… so eat them we must!
I hit upon this Dairy Free Hamantaschen recipe after a few years of experimenting in the kitchen, searching for a foolproof hamantaschen dough. I’m a perfectionist, so my go-to dough needs to be absolutely perfect! I had a long list of criteria for the dough. I wanted it to have the following qualities:
– Easy to roll out
– Easy to shape
– Won’t expand/open around the filling when baked
– Does not include margarine or shortening
– Bakes up delicate with a nice texture (not heavy)
– Wonderful flavor that will compliment any kind of sweet filling
This dough satisfies all the criteria… it is truly a wonderful dough. It does not require refrigeration before rolling out. It’s also very easy to work with– the “feel” of the dough is terrific. It’s the best texture I’ve developed for rolling and shaping. Most importantly, it creates the tastiest hamantaschen ever. My family is in love with these cookies!
You can use any hamantaschen filling you like with this dough; I’ve linked to the filling recipes available on my site below (both dairy and non-dairy fillings). 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
Prefer a butter-based hamantaschen dough? Click here for my Buttery Hamantaschen recipe. To learn more about the holiday of Purim, click here.
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Dairy Free Hamantaschen
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1-5 teaspoons water (if needed)
- Nonstick cooking oil spray
Instructions
- Before you begin making the hamantaschen, choose and make your filling and have it on hand to work with. This dough will dry out quickly if left to rest too long, so it's best to have everything ready to assemble when you start.Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, canola oil, orange zest and vanilla.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet, using a large wooden spoon and using circular motions until a crumbly dough begins to form.
- Knead until smooth and slightly tacky to the touch. 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 until it reaches the right texture.
- Lightly flour a smooth, clean surface. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. 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, if you need to.
- 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.
- 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.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. You can fit about 20 on one sheet... they don't need to be very spaced out because they shouldn't expand much during baking.Place them in the oven and let them bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, until the cookies are cooked through and lightly golden.
- Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Store them in a tightly sealed plastic bag or Tupperware.
NOTES
Nutrition
I made these today and this is exactly the recipe I’ve been looking for (I like hamantaschen that are hard as opposed to crumbly). I made the apricot filling too. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome Susanna! Let’s use the term “crisp” instead of “hard,” just so people don’t get the wrong idea… though I’d say the texture is actually somewhere between soft and crisp.
Your folding technique saved me this Purim! Thank You!
Yay!
Hi Tori, lovely recipe! Thank you! I tried a different recipe yesterday from a Dutch website. But they weren’t nice! Thiese ones are divine! This weekend I only learned of Hamentaschen and Purim. Happy Purim!
Happy Purim Rosmarjin! So happy you liked them 🙂
I finally made hamentaschen that didn’t fall apart! Great recipe. Made the apricot and prune fillings, and they are so tasty. Just found your website while looking for a hamentaschen recipe for Purim – chag sameach! Loving it!
Welcome Vera! I hope it’s the first of many recipes you’ll try… 🙂
Reporting in from my experiment with a somewhat more healthful version, using whole wheat flour and honey instead of white flour and sugar:
I substituted 1/2 c. honey for the sugar (on the assumption that honey is more intensely sweet than sugar on a spoon-for-spoon basis), and increased the flour to 2 1/2 c. whole wheat (because the dough was too sticky given the fact that honey is liquid and sugar is not). The results were stupendous!!! I should have rolled the dough out thinner than I did, but the Oznei Haman still came out super flavorful. My filling consisted of dietetic blueberry jam, some crushed walnuts and almonds slivers, and a goodly dusting of cinnamon (my working axiom is that *everything* tastes better with cinnamon). I rolled out the dough and cut the circles and my 6-year-old granddaughter filled and folded the Hammentaschen according to your directions. We had ourselves a truly freilicheh Purim. Thank you so so much!!!
Thank you, Tori.
This is the first time I made hamantaschen and have had each one stay perfectly closed!
They look beautiful and taste delicious.
I used a 3.25 inch glass as my cookie cutter. The first ones I put in exactly 1 tsp filling. For the latter ones, I put in more filling, and they still all stayed shut. I would recommend more filling than one tsp., if it’s a thick filling. It makes the finished product look more generous.
Can you use orange juice as an alternative to zest? If so, how much for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Melissa, I don’t recommend subbing juice for the zest here, it won’t give the same flavor to the dough. You can omit the zest but it will be missing a little extra something special. You can, however, sub orange juice for the extra liquid added to the dough (if you end up needing to add any).
These were so easy as you said! I was impressed for my first time making them as sometimes dough and I are not on good terms. Also I was out of white flour as we are switching to some alternative flours and sugars due to some medical reasons and reactions so I ended up using about half and half whole wheat and whole einkorn, and substituting the sugar for coconut sugar and I was skeptical on the turn out, but they worked!
I’m horribly disappointed – I guess more with myself than with the recipe since all the reviews here are so good :(( i made the dough following the recipe exactly but the result was quite thin liquid dough like for donuts… Definitely not something you can cut with a cookie cutter.. I assumed that my measuring cup was smaller than yours (although I use standard 200ml glass) and added flour to get the consistency you described. Made my hamantaschen with came out BEAUTIFUL and very delicate looking! But after baking the dough was a disappointment.. Very hard and a bit on too sweet a side. I want to try to get this right and am going to make another go. Any idea what I might have done wrong..?
Hi Natalia, I’m sorry to hear that. If the dough felt too sweet, that is probably a personal preference for you, you can certainly cut down on the sugar next time (I find this dough only mildly sweet). The dough shouldn’t bake up too hard, perhaps you overbaked it? You might prefer the buttery hamantaschen dough recipe which bakes up slightly more tender.
I just made these with the prune filling for Purim and they are delicious!
Thanks a lot for the recipe! I’m from Prague and non-jewish, but I love exploring different cultures. I’ve just baked hamantaschen and they’re gratulace! (they don’t look so perfect as yours but it was my first time so I’m totally satisfied ;-))
I meant “they’re great”, but my tablet did the correction, sorry for that
Hi – can the dairy-free dough be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to use? Would dough need to come back to room temperature before rolling it out? Thanks!
Hi Andrea, yes you can make it up to 1 day ahead, and yes it is easiest to roll out and work with at room temperature.
hi, I wonder if this pastry dough can be used for pies or tartellets?
thanks
Leah
Hi Leah– I’ve never tried it that way, I tend to like flakier crusts for my pies, but it would probably work. I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t, but then again I haven’t tested it that way so no promises!
Hey Tori!
I’ve also used more flour than written, it was really sticky without.
The jam spilled out a little bit, so they’re not gonna win any beauty pageant, but they taste delicious 🙂
Coming from a non-Jewish family, a conversion process ahead, Ive really never ever seen, how these cookies are made, or tyred to make them.
This is a huge success for me, thank you!!
🙂
Great to hear that Sara! RE: flour that’s why I say to add till it feels right. It’s really tough to give a precise measurement for this kind of dough. I too use more or less depending on the day! 🙂
I tried making these last night but I put it in the processor. It didn’t work out. Do you think I over mixed it??
Maybe I should try again by hand.
Karen, this dough should not be put into the processor. Please follow the instructions carefully for best results.
Do you think the recipe would work as is if I used whole wheat flour?
Hi Susann, I have never tried it with whole wheat flour. I think it might turn out kind of dry and the texture won’t be great, but it might work. If you do try it will you please let us know how it goes?
THANK YOU!! Thank you, thank you…I volunteered to bake these for our shul party and suddenly remembered I couldn’t do my usual butter cookie crust – and the oil dough recipes that I tried both bombed! I was at my wits end to get these done. I googled “easy to handle hamantaschen dough” and yours was the first link to pop up. It surely is easy to work with, and while mine aren’t nearly as pretty as yours, my guinea pig – I mean daughter – thought they tasted fantastic so I will definitely keep you bookmarked.
Wonderful Jenny! Happy to know the shul party is saved! 🙂
I also needed to add a lot of flour to this recipe but after that they came out fine. Thanks for the recipe.
I’m glad to see other people don’t have perfect baking sjeets either! Sounds like I need to try these too. 🙂
We made the apricot and poppy (mohn) fillings and both came out great! Your directions are super and the photos help a lot. Loved that your baking sheet has “burnt” corners, just like ours!
Ha! Yes, no perfect baking sheets in my kitchen. It’s very “lived in!” Glad you enjoyed the hamantaschen. 🙂