hamantaschen
Brooklyn Bakery Style
The world’s best!
Haman’s hat or Haman’s ears? The symbolism of the pastry we call hamantaschen is dependent upon how and where you grew up. Israel, or the U.S.? Hebrew, or Yiddish?
But since I started baking hamantaschen many years ago, a third possibility has tickled the back of my brain.
Because, I can’t help thinking… I mean, look at them.
Do they look like hats to you?
Do they look like ears?
Be honest.
You tell me what they look like to you, because I know what they’ve always looked like to me, especially when they’re filled with the most traditional filling—poppy seeds.
Hamantaschen, Brooklyn Bakery Style
If you’re not familiar with the story of holiday known as Purim, you can read my abbreviated version, mini-series style, here.
Or, you can click here for an English translation of the actual Scroll of Esther, the Megillah Esther.
In a nutshell, Purim is the story of how an evil Super-Villain called Haman attempted to have all the Jews of Persia murdered, and how they survived because of the cleverness and bravery of a young Jewish girl named Hadassah who took on the Persian name of Esther and became Queen.
And, what is it that we want to celebrate? What are we focused on?
On some bad dude’s hairy ears?
Or on his three-pointed hat?
…did they even wear tri-cornered hats in Babylon? It’s not like it was the American Revolution!
Just maybe, these triangular pastries don’t have anything to do with Haman.
Just maybe, these triangular pastries are representative of the Essence of Esther, the divine feminine, the Shechinah, the creative aspect of THE NAME
Just maybe, while we take a bite and our brains are thinking, YUM!, our souls (all of us—guys, too) are drawing in the Quintessence of the Queen and the fertile sovereignty of the feminine aspect of the One.
It’s about harnessing the power to forge ahead and do what needs doing, even when we’re terrified to do it.
If we sink our teeth into these pastries with kavanah, with awareness and intention, just maybe they’ll remind us that we have the power to save ourselves from ourselves; the power to change our lives and re-sculpt them into what we want them to be. And they can remind us that we have the power to change our world, to save our world.
Think Popeye and that can of spinach.
So I wonder…
Do you think if we re-named them Ma’ase shel hadassah (Hadassah’s pastry) or even dared to call them Harechem shel Esther (Esther’s womb) people would get onboard with the name change?
Ummmmm. Maybe not. I might be taking this too far. Let’s stick with calling them hamantaschen.
But whichever interpretation you choose to embrace, and whichever filling is your favorite, these Purim pastries are wonderful.
By the way, I recently learned that this interpretation, although less well known, has been a thing from way back. And as much as I feel vindicated by learning this, and reassured that I’m not completely twisted, I have to say that it’s always annoying when I find out that my clever ideas were someone else’s clever ideas long before they were mine. It happens…
I know a lot of busy people pick up some pre-made pie crust at the store. They cut out rounds, drop a dollop of jam from the fridge into the middle, fold it over one-two-three, and call it hamantaschen. It’s a fun activity to do with kids, and if you like pie crust and you like jam (who doesn’t?), they’re not half bad. But that doesn’t take me to hamantaschen heaven, and from one Purim to the next, hamantaschen heaven is what I long for.
I have an excuse for that. My childhood memory of hamantaschen is magical. I was privy to, not only the best pizzeria in all of NYC (R.I.P. Dominic Demarco), but also the best Jewish bakery in Brooklyn, and maybe anywhere. It totally ruined my ability to enjoy anything less.
Let’s just say that, like Sylvester Stallone said in The Lords of Flatbush, “I eat Avenue J.”
Were they really as huge as I recall, or was it that my hand was so small?
Many bakeries, and some home bakers as well, make Hamantaschen using vegetable shortening instead of butter, and orange juice or water instead of milk. That way, in keeping with Jewish dietary laws, they can be served after a meat meal. On a certain level I get that, but I just don’t enjoy them. When they’re made with solid vegetable shortening such as Crisco, I find they leave a slick coating of grease on the roof of the mouth that really turns me off. One way around that is to use oil, but the texture just isn’t right. To satisfy my craving, they need milk and butter.
For years, I tried to replicate the taste and texture I remember from childhood.
I tried using a cream cheese dough. It sounded like a good idea, but the dough was too soft and had the wrong flavor profile. Perfect for rugalach, but not for hamantaschen.
I tried using all butter. Nice flavor, wrong texture.
I’m not a fan of solid vegetable shortening for reasons I explained above. But the only way I was satisfied with both the right flavor and the right texture was to use half butter and half shortening.
I was overjoyed to discover that organic palm oil is naturally solid at room temperature, isn’t hydrogenated, is readily available, leaves no nasty residue in the mouth, and works perfectly. If you can’t find it in your market, you can find it here.
This recipe is as close as I can come to recreating the hamantaschen from Stern’s Bakery, long gone from the corner of Avenue J and East 12th Street in Brooklyn. Like the mishkan in the desert (the portable sanctuary that the Israelites carried with them throughout their 40-year trek), it will remain forever ethereal in my mind.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hamantaschen
hamantaschen: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Hamantaschen, Brooklyn Bakery Style
Here are some important tips to assure that your hamantaschen come out fabulous. The dough is soft and can be challenging to roll out and transfer, but if you use these tricks you should have no problems. (You could add more flour, but they won’t be as tender and fabulous as they should be.)
Make sure your dough is very cold before you try to roll it. When you take out the dough to roll it, chop off a chunk to use and keep the remainder in the freezer until you’re ready for it. Throughout the process, keep any dough that’s waiting to be used, in the freezer.
Some people make hamantaschen that are more cookie-like. These are more pastry-like, and so we’re rolling the dough into a rather thick slab; ⅜”. I find it much easier to be accurate and consistent when I use these rubbery rings on my rolling pin. I always use them when I roll out dough. Except for the pair that measure 1/16”. I don’t use those anymore. A naughty kitty chewed up one of them and the other is useless without its mate. But I digress …
You can roll it out on your countertop. If you go with the countertop method, be sure to generously flour the surface before you start. Cut them as close together as you can, to get the most out of each roll-out. Use a very thin, metal spatula for moving them. Leaving it in the freezer between batches is a good idea.
You can also roll them directly onto a sheet of parchment, so that you don’t have to move them after cutting them. With this method, be sure to leave about an inch between each circle that you cut. Then, just peel off the “flash” between them, gather it up, and pop it in the freezer to add to the next batch. Next, carefully slide the parchment, with your un-baked hamantaschen, onto a flat cookie sheet for baking.
But which ever way you choose to roll them out, avoid putting your rolling pin directly onto the dough. It will stick. Cover the dough with a sheet of plastic wrap and roll over the wrap. I re-use the same sheet of plastic wrap for multiple batches. Once your pastry circles are on the parchment, it’s time to fill them and fold them.
After your hamantaschen are rolled, cut, filled, and folded, on a baking tray and ready to go, put the pan into the freezer for 15 minutes before putting them into the oven. This keeps them from spreading and opening up during baking.
Do brush some egg white around the edge of each one, about ¼” wide, so that they stay folded when baking. Do be sure to check that the seams are tight. And don’t over-fill them—it’s tempting—I lean toward abundance myself—or they’ll open up when they’re baking.
I also recommend not eating six of them immediately upon taking them off the pan. You will get a stomach ache … how do I know this? you ask …
Before you start preparing the dough, decide what filling, or fillings, that you’re going to use and have it/them at the ready.
The following are my current favorites. Some are old world tried-and-true and some are newfangled and fun. Some are crazy easy and some are quick-and-easy. Then, there’s the labor-of-love, everything-from-scratch versions. They’re all good. Click to check out my recipes or create your own!
Brooklyn Bakery Hamantaschen
The World’s Best
Makes about 36, 3 ½” pastries
Ingredients: (have them all at room temperature)
½ cup unsalted butter (low moisture, European style is best)
1 ¼ cups white sugar
3 eggs
¼ cup whole milk
1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste* or extract
4 cups unbleached All-Purpose flour—more for dusting
¼ tsp cardamom (optional)
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 egg white whisked with ½ teaspoon water, for a wash
Method:
Make the Dough
Preheat oven to 325°
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or an electric hand mixer), cream together the shortening, butter, and sugar at medium/high speed until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, running the mixer on medium after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula.
Add the milk and vanilla, turn the mixer on low, and then slowly increase the speed to medium until everything is well combined. Increasing the speed slowly will keep the wet ingredients from splashing out. Again, scrape down the sides.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder. If you have a large measuring cup with a spout you can use that instead. It will make it easier to add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.
Slowly pour the flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, mixing gently on low between each addition, so that the flour doesn’t fly out and decorate your kitchen. Once it’s all been added, scrape the bowl down and mix on medium for about a minute, until all is well blended.
Remove the dough from the bowl and plop it onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap it up and allow it to chill for at least 30 minutes before continuing. (At this point you can refrigerate the dough and use it within 3 days. Wrapped well, you can even freeze it for up to 3 months.)
Make the Pastries
Take about 1/3 of the dough and roll it out 3/8” thick. The size of the cookie cutter you use should be based upon how big you want your hamantaschen to be. The giant ones we got from the bakery when I was young were very impressive, but making smaller ones means that you will be able to try a few different kinds before you’re stuffed to the max. I find that a 3.5” round cookie cutter is just right. Cut out circles of dough and lay them on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper.
My grandma would have just used a jelly jar, but I love this set. They’re sturdy and they hold their shape, they’re easy to clean, and the handles make them easy to use.
Set aside the scraps. Take half of the remaining dough, roll it out, cut your circles, and set aside the scraps. Then repeat the process with the remaining dough. When you’re finished, re-roll the scraps and keep going until you’re out of dough.
Using a ½” cookie scoop, drop a level scoopful of filling into the center of each circle.
Using a pastry brush, brush the exposed dough with the egg wash. This is essential if you don’t want your perfect triangles to open during baking.
Then pull the dough from the edge towards the center in three equidistant spots along the circumference of the circle, and pinch the dough into a triangle. You don’t want to bring it all the way to the center—you want to see the filling in the middle, as in the picture up top.
You may be inclined to use more filling. Don’t. The end result will not be pretty. Using a mini scoop works better than a teaspoon because the filling releases easily and sits up in a nice mound. This is the one that I have and I’ve been very satisfied with it.
Slide the cookie sheet with the prepared hamantaschen into the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. This will also help them to keep their shape in the oven.
Bake the hamantaschen for 15 minutes, then let the pastries cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
*Vanilla extract is fine, but I promise you, vanilla bean paste will take your baking to a whole new level. Expensive, but worth it if you can manage it. I’ve tried many brands—they’re not all the same. I like this one is the best. It’s on par with Nielsen-Massey in quality and flavor, and it’s ethically sourced, which matters to me. I avoid buying and eating anything that causes suffering to any creature. Life is hard. Let’s be gentle with one another.