Hamataschen
Servings: 1
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 10 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- Zest of one lemon
- 8 oz. jam or preserves for the filling
- 1 tsp milk
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and process for a few seconds until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together two of the eggs, the egg yolks, the vanilla and the lemon zest. Add the egg mixture to the food processor and process for thirty seconds. (It will still be somewhat dry and crumbly.)
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, gather into a ball and knead until it comes together.
- Divide dough in half and form into two discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- To make the cookies, remove one of the disc from the refrigerator and let the dough warm up slightly to make it easier to roll out.
- Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper.
- Roll out dough on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin to between 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch thickness.
- Using a 4-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles and place them on the lined cookie sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough and re-roll them out to cut out more circles.
- To fill the cookies, spoon a teaspoon of jam or preserves in the center of the dough circle.
- To create the classic triangle shape for the Hamantaschen, do a series of three folds. First, fold one side of the cookie in so that the edge comes to the middle of the jam filling. Fold the second side in the same way and so that it partially covers the first side. Finally, fold the remaining side up and in so that it overlaps the other two sides. Chill the cookies for at least ten minutes prior to baking.
- Make an egg wash of one egg beaten with the milk.
- Brush the outside of the cookies with egg wash with a pastry brush.
- Bake for 15 minutes or so until the cookies are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
- Repeat with the remaining disc of dough.