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
35 servings
15 minutes
15 minutes
Dairy
Description
Learn to make buttery hamantaschen dough, easy to work with for any filling. Rich, delicious, orange-scented cookies. Kosher, Dairy.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp grated orange zest
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1-5 tsp water (if needed)
Recipe Notes
You will also need: Large mixing bowl, electric mixer, sifter, pastry scraper, rolling pin, 3-inch cookie cutter or drinking glass with 3-inch diameter rim
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.
I just made these. First hamantaschen since I was kid, and boy, they worked great. Suuuper buttery and tasty. Thanks!
Hi Tory,
We talked about Esther on Sunday, part of our series of amazing women in the Old and New Testaments. To go along with the lesson I made your yummy cookies. I didn’t have a lot of time, so divided the dough in two and refrigerated for only 1 1/2 hours instead of 3. It was quite manageable that way and much easier to roll than one large lump. I made 3 fillings and used Nutella as well. They all turned out very well. For the apple filling, I didn’t see water as an ingredient, but in the instructions it said to use 3/4 cup. Since it was going to cook so long, and reduce the liquid any way, as a time saver, I only used 1/2 cup of water and it worked out well. I liked your reader’s comment to roll in icing sugar, although mine turned out just fine. I also only needed 2 T of water. Enjoy your site and will look for other recipes to enjoy.
Hi Tori, how many hamantaschen does this recipe make? Sorry if I just missed it somewhere!
Looking forward to making delicious (belated) hamantaschen with the recipe 🙂
About 30-40 🙂 enjoy!
These are delicious! My only comment is that with my oven on 350 degrees (with internal thermometer) the bake time of 20 minutes burned the cookies! I ended up doing about 12-14 minutes depending on how thick the dough was and they were perfect!
I’ve had a few comments on the cook time this year, seems like most are cooking it for a shorter period. I went ahead and adjusted the recipe to check earlier for doneness. Glad you enjoyed the cookies!
I made these recently with the apricot filling and they turned out great. I tried using a lemon curd filling and they spilled out when they baked. I added flour to the lemon curd which prevented it from spilling out but I felt that the filling lost the lemon curd texture. Do you have a recommendation to prevent the lemon curd from spilling out? Should I refrigerate or freeze it first? Roll out the dough a little thicker? Thank you!
You might try making the lemon curd from scratch; it should be quite thick, and store bought curd is sometimes too thin for a filling. You might also try adding minute tapioca to the curd to thicken it, much like a pie filling.
Hi Tori, I love your “closure” method; will definitely try next year. I use a similar recipe; a childhood family favorite (2C flour, 1/2C unsalted butter, 1/2C sugar, 1/8 tsp salt, 1T OJ and 1tsp baking powder). I always refrigerate overnight and work with only 1/2 of the dough at a time, using a 3 1/2 – 3 3/4″ circle. Years ago, I picked up a tip to use confectioner’s sugar vs flour on the rolling surface, rolling pin and cookie cutter to prevent the dough from getting tough. My cooking time was 16 minutes; will be recalibrating my oven to make certain it is accurate. I like to dust with confectioner’s sugar, prior to serving. I’ve made and enjoyed other recipes, on your site🙂
Just made these today. The dough was really hard to roll out, I had to have my husband do it, and it was tough for him too. Otherwise they turned out great. I would check after 15 minutes in the oven to keep them from getting overdone.
Hi Shiri, it takes some practice to get a feel for butter dough. My dairy free version is much easier to roll out. With butter dough, it will be quite hard out of the refrigerator, but will soften within 15 minutes or so. It’s a tricky balance between too cold (hard) and too warm (soft/sticky).
Please help. I made the on our granite table, it stuck to the table. I did use a lot of flour. Do you have any other suggestions. Parchment paper under the dough? The first batch was delicious. Looking to make another batch tonight. Thank you for the recipe and for your help.
Was the dough cold? You can’t let it sit at room temp too long or the butter will begin to melt and you’ll end up with a sticky dough.
Made this recipe with lemon zest (we have a lemon tree) instead of orange, and made ones with homemade lemon curd and balaton cherry jam. We took half the dough and mixed in 3 tablespoons of cacao powder and extra butter, and then made chocolate ones with a pre-made dulce topped with cacao nibs, mint chocolate chips, and peanut-butter. Out of the 5 types, they all tasted good, but I would recommend people make a sauce if using chocolate chips as they didn’t melt well (could be the brand).
Great recipe; however, dough does get crumbly after a bit as some have commented. Cookies a tad crispier than my hamantaschen preference, but this is a good go-to recipe for homemade ones. Last, I found the 3″ diameter circles slightly small, which made it a little harder to work with so we upped the size.
Good call on making a chocolate sauce for the filling instead of using chips in the future. It’s not the brand- chocolate chips are specifically designed to resist melting. Even just smashing them up a bit will help.
you should use nutella instead of chips always …
Hi it’s Dorit
I just finished backin the Hamantaschen and they are Delicious.
Thanks
Happy to hear that Dorit! Chag Sameach!
Hi… I’m planning to make this tonight to be served tomorrow but I don’t have enough time to put the dough in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight. What’s should I do?
Thanks
Refrigerate it as long as you can. The colder the dough is, the easier it will be to roll out and work with.