The buttery rich base and sweet jammy filling make these bite-sized Purim treats irresistible!

These easy buttery Hamantaschen are delicious triangle-shaped pastry pockets with a sweet jam filling traditionally served for Purim.

These jam-filled cookies are actually made with a pastry dough for a pie crust treat that melts in your mouth! For more bite sized pastries, try my Apple Pie Pops and Rugelach too.

Sabrina’s Hamantaschen Recipe

This authentic Hamantaschen recipe is perfect for holidays and celebrations. Traditionally made during the Jewish holiday of Purim, their triangle shape and colorful jam center make a tasty, festive addition to any dessert table, no matter what holiday you celebrate. Everyone is sure to love the combination of buttery, flaky pastry and bright fruit filling. These delicious mini pastries are a little bit time-consuming to make, but that doesn’t mean they’re difficult. Most of the extra time is because the dough needs time in the fridge to chill and since the recipe makes around 60 pieces, you’ll need to bake them in batches.

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Ingredients

To Finish:

▢ 2 large eggs , beaten
▢ 1 tablespoon water
▢ 3/4 cup apricot jam
▢ 3/4 cup strawberry jam

Instructions

Cookie Dough:

Add flour, powdered sugar and frozen butter to a stand mixer.
Cover the top of the stand mixer with a clean kitchen towel and hold tightly.
Note: Flour and powdered sugar WILL come out of the bowl if you do not cover.
On the lowest speed setting let it mix until the butter is broken into the flour and powdered sugar and it is no longer powdery.
Remove the towel.
Remove excess dust from towel into your trash can.
Add egg yolks to the stand mixer and mix on low speed.
Add in 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture makes a dough ball.
Cut dough into 4 even pieces and wrap them in plastic wrap in discs.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To Assemble:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Note: You will be baking in batches, so leave cookie dough in refrigerator until needed.
On a floured surface, roll the cookie dough into a large circle about 1/8″ thick.
Cut out the cookie dough with a 3" circle cookie cutter.
Move the cookie dough to the parchment paper lined baking sheets with spatulas about 1″ apart.
Once you have scraps add them to the original plastic wrap and put back in refrigerator, you can combine them all at the end and they won’t be too warm from excess handling.
Brush gently with egg wash around the edge of the circle.
Add 1 teaspoon of jam filling to the middle of the cookie dough.
Fold up three sides of the circle to form a triangle and pinch the edges together.
Place baking sheets in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before baking.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees while the first batch of cookies is chilling.
Bake for 11-13 minutes until they are just barely starting to brown.
Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from rack and starting your next batch.
When all four batches have been done do a final batch with all the scraps.

Notes

Note on baking time: The cookies themselves take about 10-12 minutes to bake, but you will be baking 4 batches so the time is calculated for how long it takes to bake all 4 batches.

Nutrition

Can you make these ahead of time?

You can fully assemble the cookies and either freeze or refrigerate them until you are ready to make them. They will freeze well for about 3 months and are good in the fridge for up to 2 days. Then just bake them as usual, adding a little time as needed if baking from frozen.
You can also prepare the dough, divided into four balls or cut the dough circles, and store for the same amount of time in the fridge or freezer before shaping and filling the pastries. If you freeze the dough, let it thaw in the fridge overnight so that it softens but doesn’t get too warm before shaping it.
Whether freezing the assembled unbaked cookies or precut dough circles, I recommend spreading them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and freezing for 1-2 hours before transferring to storage container. This will allow you to store them without them sticking together and reduces freezer burn.

Frequent Questions

Why use frozen butter?

Using frozen butter helps create the flaky dough that you want for this recipe. As it cooks, the cold butter melts and creates air pockets in the dough. This results in layers of tender, buttery pastry similar to pie crust.

What is the best way to store Hamantaschen?

You can put them in an airtight container separated by layers of parchment paper to keep them from drying out. Kept sealed, the pastries can stay good for 4-5 days. You can also freeze baked Hamantaschen for up to 3 months.

Variations

Jam filling: Try making the same cookies with blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, or mixed berry jam. You could also make an orange-flavored recipe by adding orange zest to the dough and using marmalade for the filling.
Poppy seed filling: Start by grinding ½ cup poppy seeds in a spice or coffee grinder. (you may want to do this in batches) Then transfer the ground poppy seeds to a saucepan and stir in ½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, ⅓ cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and the juice and zest from half of a lemon. Bring the ingredients to a simmer and cook for 6-8 minutes until it has thickened to a jam-like consistency. Continue to stir throughout the cooking time to keep the mixture from sticking to the pan. Transfer the poppy seed filling to a bowl and let it cool before using.
Lemon Hamantaschen: For a tart, citrus take on this recipe, add lemon zest to the pie crust dough, and use Lemon Curd for the pastry filling.
Cream cheese filling: Combine 1 package of softened cream cheese, ½ cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Add a spoonful to the center of the dough, fold and bake as usual. For this cream cheese version, additions like chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips also taste great with the rich filling.