Denise says:
Hamantaschen can be made with yeast dough, a sour cream dough, a rich short crust or biscuit pastry. I have chosen to use a rich short crust pastry. This is made using 4 colours of pastry, patch worked together, rolled out and then shaped into Hamantaschen. In addition to the colour, I have flavoured each colour pastry with a different flavouring ~ this is optional but certainly fun!
I have given you 4 different types of fillings. Make these before you make the pastry as they need to be cool before using.
Preparation Time: 40 minutes plus resting time
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Makes: Approx. 60
NB: The quantity of pastry is quite substantial – it does work using half!
Fruit filling:
Ingredients:
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75g sultanas
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50g chopped walnuts
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1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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1 eating apple – Peeled and grated
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50g soft brown sugar
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50g unsalted butter or margarine
Method:
- Add the sultanas, cinnamon, chopped walnuts, sugar, and butter to the food processor and pulse gently to combine.
- Stir in the grated apple.
Chocolate filling:
Ingredients:
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Nutella
Method:
-
Use 1 teaspoon of Nutella in the middle of each Hamantaschen.
Apricot filling:
Ingredients:
-
250g dried pitted apricots
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60ml water
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60ml orange juice
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25g caster sugar
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1 tablespoon lemon juice
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Pinch of salt
Method:
- Make the apricot filling by combining all the ingredients together in a saucepan. Stir and bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes. When there is about 1 tablespoon of liquid left, transfer to the liquidiser or food processor. Remove and transfer to a dish.
- Leave to cool and then leave in the fridge until ready to use. It is easier to use when it is completely cold.
Poppy Seed filling:
Ingredients:
-
150g poppy seeds
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120ml honey
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120ml milk / soya milk/ coconut milk
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1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
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1 tablespoon sugar
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¼ teaspoon salt
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½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:
- Finely grind poppy seeds in spice mill.
- Transfer to a medium saucepan and add honey, milk, lemon juice, sugar, and salt.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, until thickened and a spatula holds a trail when dragged across bottom of pan, about 4 minutes; stir in vanilla. Let cool.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
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570g plain flour
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300g unsalted butter or margarine
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Zest of 2 lemons
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4 teaspoons lemon juice
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2 eggs
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100g caster sugar
Second Stage:
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Food colours – 4 different eg red, orange, green and purple
I recommend Magic Colour – kosher and colourful ! -
Food flavours – 4 different eg vanilla, rose water, orange, chocolate
For the glaze:
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1 egg white – lightly whisked
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2 tablespoons – poppy seeds
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2 tablespoons – Hundreds and thousands
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 400ºC/200ºF/ Gas mark 6.
- Make the pastry by mixing all the ingredients together in a food processor. Divide the pastry into 4 portions.
- Flavour and colour each portion of pastry separately. Add a teaspoon of colour and a teaspoon of flavour –optional to each batch. ( Ensure the food processor is very clean before adding the next pastry dough.)
- Wrap each pastry batch in cling film and flatten. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- To make rainbow hamantaschen, roll out the coloured pastry taking a little of each colour dough and roll so it is about 2cm thick. ~ a patchwork effect is what you want to make.
- Using a 7.5 cm (3 inch) cutter make round templates. Repeat with the remaining pastry.
- Now add a large tea spoonful of your choice of filling into each circle.
- Draw up the sides to form a triangle, pinching the edges firmly together in the shape of a tricorn hat.
- Line a baking tray with baking parchment paper.
- Transfer the Hamantschen to the baking tray and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
- Glaze with egg white and then sprinkle with poppy seeds and hundreds and thousands for a magnificent finale.
To serve the stylish way: Dust with icing sugar.