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 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp grated orange zest
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1-5 tsp water (if needed)
Notes
InstructionsÂ
- 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.
Nicole Willis says
Very easy and delicious! I’ve made these with multiple fillings and my family devours them! I particularly love your caramel apple filling!!!
Zoe says
Delicious!!! And the directions are very easy to follow. This is my first time making hamantaschen and it tastes better than store bought!
Heather Wickman says
They were great! So much so that requests for three more batches followed immediately after the 1st batch was consumed!! Suspect requests will keep coming in as they disappear!! Yummy!!!
Stephanie Bach says
The best hamentashens we have ever made-We might need to make them year round!
Elizabeth Bligh says
These were the best Hamentashen I’ve ever made. My technique is this: after I put the filling on the dough, I pinch the three corners and bring the dough up. It’s faster than all the folding. I used a mixture of prunes and apricots in the filling. Delicious!
Michelle says
Amazing! I’ve made these 4 times and each time they were perfect. My sister is a huge pastry critic and she can’t stop raving about the dough! Thanks so much for posting the recipe!
Pam says
Hi Tori,
I made this recipe two days ago and everyone said that they were the best hamantaschen they have ever had. As I had lots of filling left, I decided to make them again today. I made the dough last night and even though I followed the recipe exactly as I had the first time, I had the feeling that the dough was too soft. I packaged it up and put it in the fridge and hoped for the best. I took it out this afternoon to roll out and it was one sticky mess. I had to scoop it all back up and added at least another cup of flour and put it all back in the fridge. After three hours, I tried again. While I was able to roll them out, they were so soft and very difficult to handle. I put more flour in but I’m afraid that too much flour will have made the cookie so tough. For the life of me I can’t imagine what went wrong. I used the exact same ingredients and followed the recipe exactly both times. Can you think of what may have gone wrong? Thanks.
Tori Avey says
Goodness, that’s strange… I’m not sure!
Anna says
The temperature of your house or butter could have gotten so high that the butter melted before baking. This would make sense to why the dough was too soft and sticky. I usually bump my air down under 70 degrees F and lay big ice packs on my counter 30 minutes before working with any dough with butter in it that isn’t suppose to melt.
Susan says
Did you ever make these again or figure this out? I’m about to make this recipe, after failing twice with an almond flour gluten-free douth. Would love to hear back from you.
Bharvi says
Tried it for the first time following the directions exactly and came out so good.
Laura says
Replaced the flour with 1-1 gluten free and used coconut sugar instead. Had to be careful to take my time when folding and actually ended up pinching each end more than doing that pretty fold. But, so good! Thank you! Used a strawberry jam recipe for inside. So yum.
Alyssa says
We’ve made these two years in a row and they’re so good! Love the picture by picture directions, especially for the folding part.
joseph Pardo says
Absolutely Amazing! Happy Purim! 😀
Robin C says
My first time making Hamantaschen from scratch. The recipe was really easy to follow and they came out delicious.I substituted orange juice for the water along with the orange zest to give them more of an orange flavor. We made seedless raspberry and chocolate ganache filling. Both were amazing.