Hazelnut Hamantaschen
Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. It’s Hamantaschen. This one is a Hazelnut Hamantaschen. They’re a buttery, crispy cookie associated with the Jewish Holiday of Purim. Traditional fillings are things like apricot jam or poppy seed but you can fill them with anything you like.
The inspiration for these are the fancy little chocolates with the hazelnut centers in the gold foil…you know the ones I mean. The filling is simple, it’s just Nutella. My version also uses malted milk powder in the dough which gives the cookie a little nuttiness and keeps them from getting too hard.
This recipe makes 2-3 dozen cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutter. I use a 4″ round and get 2 dozen big Hamantaschen.
Ingredients
For Filling
For Dipping
Start by combining the butter and sugar in your stand mixer. Beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Then beat in the egg, salt, vanilla, and malted milk powder. Make sure it’s completely combined so there are no chunks of butter visible. Add in the flour a little at a time, the dough will get very stiff. If you’re using a hand mixer, you may need to finish the last bit with a wooden spoon and kneading in with your hands. Work the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it chill for about an hour. While the dough is chilling, prep your cookie sheets with parchment and preheat the oven to 350F.
Next comes the fussy bit. The rolling and shaping. I do it in pieces rather than trying to roll the entire thing at once. As I said, it’s a really stiff dough so you’ll need some muscle and a good heavy rolling pin. Roll it out to about 1/8th of an inch thick and cut with a round cookie cutter. I’m using a 4″ round here, I find that the larger cookies are easier to fold. I cut about 3 or 4 at a time so I can fill and fold them at once.
Drop about a teaspoon of Nutella in the middle of your rounds, then fold them into triangles. Start with the left side of the circle and fold it towards the center to make a flap that covers a third of the circle. Then fold the right side of the circle towards the center, overlapping the upper part of the left side flap to create a triangular tip at the top of the circle. Finally, take the bottom part of the circle and fold it upward to create a third flap and complete the triangle. Be sure to tuck the left side of this new flap underneath the left side of the triangle and let the right side of this bottom flap overlap the right side of the triangle to create a pinwheel effect. If your dough is dry and looks like it’s cracking, you may need to pinch the corners a little to keep them from opening during baking.
Place the triangles on the parchment lined cookie sheets and bake at 350F for about 12-15 minutes until the are just starting to brown on the edges. Place them on a rack to cool.
While they cool, you can prep the dip. Put the roasted hazelnuts in a food processor/chopper. I use my Ninja for this. Give them a few long pulses, until they are coarsely chopped. In another bowl, melt the chocolate melting wafers. I used dark chocolate wafers from Ghirardelli, melted on the defrost setting on my microwave for about a minute, stirring half way through. Dip one corner in the melted chocolate then in the chopped hazelnuts. You may need to spoon the nuts over the chocolate to help cover it.
Set the Hamantaschen back on the rack for 15 minutes or so until the chocolate sets. You may also have ended up with a bowl of chocolate covered excess hazelnut pieces…you can just go ahead and eat those with a spoon. I wont tell. Once the chocolate has hardened, the Hamantaschen are ready to serve. Store them in an airtight container, they’ll keep about 4-5 days so long as it’s not to warm.
