You might have your family’s favorite recipe and not need mine, but I think my tidbits will help you create beautiful, flaky pastries and I am including some non-hamantashen traditional recipes from Greece, Persia and one I created with a nod to France. Here is a list of dos and don’ts starting from the preparation to the eating.
Tina’s Tidbits:
- Most dough recipes can be madewith Gluten-free flour, but you might have to add a tablespoon or so of liquid too prevent dry dough
- You will notice in the photo that one type of dough is a little rough and cracked in some places, this happens when your recipe calls for baking powder. I prefer to incorporate more air into the fat and egg mixture before adding the dry ingredients which keeps the dough smooth and light and flaky.
- Adding confectioners’ sugar to your dough instead of granulated will produce a smooth, crisp, but not hard, finished product. However, use my recipes as a guideline for quantity if you are thinking about converting your recipe.
- A word about types of fat and don’t shoot me!
- When using butter always use unsalted butter.
- When using coconut oil use refined coconut oil unless you want a stronger coconut flavor in your dough.
- Never use whipped margarine for baked goods. The air changes the volume of fat that you are using and there is more water in it so it will change the consistency of your dough and make it much harder to roll and shape.
- Crisco- take the shocked look off your face! Crisco was the number one food that helped Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century assimilate into American culinary culture. Since lard couldn’t be used to make a light, flaky pie crust Crisco could, and it made the dish pareve so an apple pie could be eaten at the end of a Shabbat chicken dinner. As of October 2022, Crisco no longer contains trans-fat but it still makes the crispiest, flakiest cookie dough so I created this recipe for those who don’t want animal fat.
- Oil can often be used in a baked dough, but the finished product is denser and harder than crisp. However, you might have a family recipe that calls for it and if you like it, don’t change the ingredients.
- When rolling out your dough sprinkle confectioners’ sugar on your work surface NOT flour. Confectioners’ sugar is 3% cornstarch and that will prevent sticking and any sugar that gets pressed into the down will not make the cookie dry but will enhance the golden color of the finished product.
- Cover your dough with plastic wrap or a piece of parchment paper before rolling. If flour or more confectioners’ sugar is sprinkled on top of the dough to prevent sticking to the rolling pin, it will also prevent the hamantaschen from sticking to each corner when being shaped. The result will be the dough opening during baking. They might taste good, but they will look more like tacos!
- The filling should be dense and contain little moisture. If not making your own, I suggest using Solo canned fillings or pie fillings. NEVER use jelly unless you like hollow hamantaschen will a sticky mess on your cooky sheet. If you want to use jam then make sure the first ingredient listed is fruit, not sugar.
- Last, but not least, raw dough freezes well, baked hamantaschen freeze well, but unbaked, shaped hamantaschen don’t freeze well and will open when baked.