The Best Hamantaschen Recipe Ever | The Nosher (2024)

FAQs

How to thicken jam for hamantaschen? ›

Thicken the filling: I like to use already made jams as fillings. Most jams are too thin for hamantachen, hence the bubbling over in the oven problem. Before I make the dough, I put the jam in a small pot and simmer it on low heat until it's reduced.

However tempting it might be to put lots of delicious filling in the middle of your cookie, using more than 1 teaspoon can cause your hamantaschen to spread open and leak in the oven. 1 teaspoon is plenty, especially when you cut your dough circles to 3 inches… it's the perfect amount of filling.

But the most crucial step for ensuring your cookies keep their shape is to CHILL THEM. That's right — after you roll, fill, and shape your cookies, pop those suckers back into the fridge for 10 minutes or the freezer for 5 minutes to ensure a good bake.

Naked Archaeologist documentarian Simcha Jacobovici has shown the resemblance of hamantashen to dice from the ancient Babylonian Royal Game of Ur, thus suggesting that the pastries are meant to symbolize the pyramidal shape of the dice cast by Haman in determining the day of destruction for the Jews.

Jams made from fruits with higher sugar content thicken on their own more easily than those with less sugar. A no-sugar or low-sugar recipe might not call for enough sugar to naturally thicken the jam, even at a rolling boil.

Add chia seeds. A quick jam can be made by mashing fruit and sugar with a few tablespoons of chia seeds, as chia seeds have natural gelling skills. Those gelling properties can be put to work in jars of loose jam too.

It's Not All About You, Haman

Kolatch's The Jewish Book of Why. Kolatch writes that Queen Esther derived strength from her ancestors, and the three corners of the hamantaschen cookie represent the three patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

The name literally means “Haman's pockets” (not Haman's hat, as is usually translated), after the villain of the Purim story, and probably comes from an 18th-century German snack cake, Mohntaschen—Mohn means “poppy seed,” and Tasch means “pocket.” Hamantaschen, therefore, is a play on words (and you know how we Jews ...

Try not to overwork the dough, only knead until 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.

It will give them a nice toasty flavor. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool them right on the pan. Store Hamantaschen well-wrapped at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.

Can you eat hamantaschen year round? ›

[%image reference-image float=right width=400 caption="Any day is a good day to make hamantaschen."] Luckily, hamantaschen, like matzo-ball soup, are technically a holiday food but appropriate to enjoy at any time of year.

Food has a special place in Jewish celebrations, and on the holiday of Purim, Jews celebrate by baking and eating a triangular cookie called "Hamantaschen."

Hamantaschen – which is Yiddish for "Haman's pocket" – is a biscuit popularised by Ashkenazi Jews that likely stemmed/evolved from mohntaschen or poppy pockets (pastry typically stuffed with poppy seed filling) made by their Germanic cousins.

Earlier versions of the cookie were known as Oznei Haman, translated to “Haman's ears.” This is considered a reference to cutting off a criminal's ear before their execution. Many believe that Haman's ears had been cut off after he was hung at the end of the Purim story.

The black-and-white cookie was among the original recipes used by Glaser's Bake Shop. By the post-war period, black-and-white cookies had become part of American Ashkenazi Jewish culinary repertoire, deeply rooted in the Jewish communities of New York City and elsewhere around the United States.

Mulberries don't have enough pectin on their own, which is why we doubled up on the pectin for this recipe to make sure the jam thickens and sets. We prefer liquid pectin because it dissolves instantly and is easy to use.

For every 4 cups of jam that needs to be remade, whisk together 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon powdered pectin. Pour the jam into a low, wide pan and add the sugar and pectin combo. Stir until the sugar and pectin has dissolved.

You can boil it down on the stove to thicken it up a bit... maybe add in some gelatin too. Also, to make it easier on you, you can spread the jam filling thin on a baking sheet and freeze it and then put it on the cake while it's frozen so it'll go on as one sheet.

Stiff jams or jellies can be thinned with water or fruit juice. They may or may not form a gel again once they are re-heated, as over-cooking of pectin can reduce or destroy its ability to form the gel structure. You will need to experiment with how much liquid is needed to thin your jam or jelly.