Sophia’s Classic Hamantaschen

On Sunday, March 13th, I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS and there was a story featuring Hamantaschen, the delicious cookie eaten during the Jewish holiday of Purim. Since elementary school, I have attended Hebrew School and enjoyed this yummy treat during Purim. However, after watching the Sunday Morning story, I was astonished when I realized that I had never baked the cookie myself. That is, until now!

For those of you who have never tried this classic, Jewish dessert, let me fill you in on a cookie with the best fill-ings. A Hamantaschen is a triangular shaped cookie with a jam, chocolate, marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, or any other spreadable filling in the center of the triangle. The best part of making Hamantaschens is that you can be as creative as you want with the fillings and make your Hamantaschens as unique as possible. Of course, when you bake these you also get to roll out and play with cookie dough, and who doesn’t like that?!

The original recipe I used can be found here. For my own Sophia-Spin to the recipe, I added cinnamon to the dough which helped to elevate the flavor of the Hamantaschen.

Sophia’s Classic Hamantaschen

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• Jars of Jam for filling
• Nutella for filling

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
2. In another large bowl attached to a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Check out this tip for beating butter and sugar.
3. Once the butter and sugar is well combined, add your eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
4. Slowly, with the stand mixer on low speed, add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stop mixing once the ingredients are fully combined.
5. Let the cookie dough chill in the fridge for 20–30 minutes.
6. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
7. Dust your clean surface with flour and roll out your dough so it is ¼" thick. Cut your dough into triangles and set aside. Pinch together the points of the triangle so there is a hole in the center of the triagle. Scoop about ½ teaspoon of filling into the hole in the center and place on a baking sheet.
8. Bake for 10–12 minutes.
9. Cool completely and enjoy!

The photos below will show you how I make the Hamantaschen.

Add flour to a large bowl.

Add baking powder.

Add ground cinnamon.

Whisk and set aside.

Place room temperature butter in a large bowl attached to a stand mixer.

Did you forget to take your butter out of the refridgerator so it would be room temperature? No worries! Check out this time saving trick. :)

Add sugar and beat the butter and sugar on high speed for at least 10 minutes.

Make sure to scrape down the bowl so all of the butter and sugar will be fully combined.

Add the eggs, beating after each addition.

On low speed and in small batches, add the flour mixture.

Mix until fully combine.

Let the dough chill for 20–30 minutes.

Roll out the dough so it is about 1/4" thick.

Cut into triangles with a cookie cutter or a knife.

Pinch the points of the triangle so there is a hole in the center. Add 1/2 teaspoon of filling into the center of each triangle.

Bake for 10–12 minutes.

Let cool completely and enjoy!

Yummy!

😍😋

That’s it! These treats are surpringly simple and easy to bake. Like always, don’t forget the most important ingredient, love. Happy Purim!