Hamantaschen are a delicious, slightly sweet, triangular filled cookie treat that are easy and affordable to make yourself at home! This best hamantaschen cookie recipe produces absolutely beautiful cookies too and sure to be a show-stopper at any dinner or any party you make them for.
Traditionally Hamantaschen are cookies eaten during the Jewish celebration of Purim (a celebration of Queen Esther and her bravery), but can be eaten anytime and enjoyed by all! The name “hamantachen” refers to the villian in the story of Queen Esther, “Haman”, and a pocket or “tash” in Yiddish. There is debate whether the triangular shape of the cookie refers to Haman’s pockets, ears, or hat. Nevertheless, eating hamantaschen on the holiday of Purim, was meant as a way to symbolically destroy Haman’s memory and celebrate the preservation of God’s people.
These cookies are absolutely delicious and SO fun to put together!
Go ahead and give this recipe a try! Happy baking!
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Details
25 cookies
1 hour
1 hour 10 mins
2 hours 10 mins
Print
Filling Ingredients
2 cups of dried apricots
1 cup of water
0.5 cups of sugar
1 TBSP of lemon juice
1/4 TSP of salt
Cookie Dough Ingredients
3 eggs (1 used for egg wash)
2/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of canola oil
Zest of 1 orange
1 TSP of vanilla
2.25 cups of flour
1 TSP of baking powder
0.25 TSP of salt
Directions
- Combine all of the “filling” ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, cover with a lid and reduce heat to low and simmer mixture (stirring every few minutes) until apricots are falling apart and most of the liquid has evaporated. This will take approximately 30-45 minutes.
- Transfer the apricot mixture to a blender and blend for 5 to 10 pulses or until the apricots in the form of a chunky puree. Filling is now done! Let cool before moving forward to assembling the cookies.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a stand mixer (if you don’t have one I highly recommend this one!) with a paddle attachment, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, orange zest and vanilla.
- Once combined, add the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Once the wet and dry ingredients are combined mix/knead the dough in the mixer until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky. Make sure not to overwork the dough!
- After lightly flouring your work surface and rolling pin, roll out your dough to between 1/4 to 1/8 inches thick, and cut out 3 inch circles of dough using a cookie cutter (these are great with handles!). The dough can be a little soft, so I always use my dough scrapper for picking up the circles, which makes it SO easy. You should end up with around 25 circles.
- Once your circle are cut out, place 1 generous TSP of the apricot filling into the center of each circle. It is VERY important to use a filling that is not watery, or you run the risk of the filling spilling out of the center of the cookies during your bake.
- Assemble the hamantaschen by folding the sides of the circle into a triangle shape. If you aren’t familiar with a folding the dough for hamantaschen cookies, check out this easy to follow video (start at 4 minutes, 50 seconds for the folding tutorial)!
- Transfer your filled and folded hamantaschen to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat (I use these mats every time and they make a big difference!). The cookies don’t need to be spaced out much as they don’t expand much during baking.
- Next, beat one egg in a small bowl and brush the hamantaschen cookies lightly with the beaten egg (these brushes are great!-so affordable, have a soft touch, and recommended by Bon Appetit). Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F until the cookies are lightly golden.
- Cool the cookies on a wire cooling racks.
- Enjoy! Keep in Tupperware at room temperature to stay fresh for a couple of days.
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Interested in other baking ideas like these best hamantaschen cookie recipe?? Check out our best challah recipe, amazing carrot cake recipe or our best sandwich bread recipe! Both have been tested and are delicious, repeatable, and reliable every time!
