The Perfect Hamantaschen Recipe - Tomatoes Tomahtos (2024)

FAQs

How do you make hamantaschen stay closed? ›

Pinch It.

Don't get lazy when pinching your hamantaschen corners. Make sure you pinch those corners nice and tight, each and every time — as if the fate of the Jewish people depends on it.

The trick to keeping hamantaschen closed is to fold!

Fold down one third of the circle covering a portion of the filling. Then, fold the next third down, overlapping the first third.

Thicken the filling: I like to use already made jams as fillings. Most jams are too thin for hamantachen, hence the bubbling over in the oven problem. Before I make the dough, I put the jam in a small pot and simmer it on low heat until it's reduced.

STORING YOUR HAMANTASCHEN

Hamantaschen will always be best the day that they're baked, but they'll hold well at room temperature up to two days after baking. Store the cooled cookies in a sealed container or wrapped in plastic.

The baked hamantaschen are best served the same day they are made, but they can be frozen for a few weeks. Defrost completely before serving.

The tradition to eat hamantaschen on Purim appears to have begun in Europe. The name is derived from two German words: mohn (poppy seed) and taschen (pockets).

Room temperature: Use airtight containers, cookie jars, or plastic bags to prevent air exposure and moisture loss. Keep cookies in a cool, dry area. Refrigerated: Use airtight containers or sealed plastic bags to store cookies in the fridge. Monitor the moisture level to avoid condensation.

As The Spruce Eats explains, these pastries, which often surround a jam or fruit filling but were originally made with sweetened poppy seeds, were long known in Germany and were called mohntaschen or "poppy seed pockets." At some point in the 15th century, German Jews dubbed them hamantaschen, or "Haman's pockets," as ...

The name literally means “Haman's pockets” (not Haman's hat, as is usually translated), after the villain of the Purim story, and probably comes from an 18th-century German snack cake, Mohntaschen—Mohn means “poppy seed,” and Tasch means “pocket.” Hamantaschen, therefore, is a play on words (and you know how we Jews ...

Why do Jews eat hamantaschen? ›

Naked Archaeologist documentarian Simcha Jacobovici has shown the resemblance of hamantashen to dice from the ancient Babylonian Royal Game of Ur, thus suggesting that the pastries are meant to symbolize the pyramidal shape of the dice cast by Haman in determining the day of destruction for the Jews.

Hamantaschen are traditional cookies eaten during the Jewish holiday, Purim. They consist of pockets of dough filled with poppy seeds or a variety of other fillings. The three corners of the hamantashen are thought to represent the three-cornered hat worn by Haman, the villain of the Purim story.

Pectin is a mucilaginous substance (gummy substance extracted from plants), occurring naturally in pears, apples, quince, oranges, and other citrus fruits. It is used as the gelling agent in traditional jams and jellies.

So if you use pieces of fruit or whole berries, you are actually using less fruit than if it were mashed, or cooked to a mash and then measured, and you will get a firmer jell. Or you may have used more pectin than the recipe called for. For example, if you used Tablespoons of pectin rather than teaspoons.

Commercial pectin helps thicken jam made with low-pectin fruits, like blackberry jam, or vegetable jelly recipes, like pepper jelly. It comes in powder or liquid form, but the former is the most common. Add powdered pectin to the fruit juice, chopped fruit, or strained purée before heating the jam mixture.

Naked Archaeologist documentarian Simcha Jacobovici has shown the resemblance of hamantashen to dice from the ancient Babylonian Royal Game of Ur, thus suggesting that the pastries are meant to symbolize the pyramidal shape of the dice cast by Haman in determining the day of destruction for the Jews.

These cookies were called “mohntaschen” which translates to “poppy seed pockets.” In the early 19th century, Germany Jews started making them specifically for Purim and called them “hamantaschen” because the name of the Purim villain, Haman, sounds like “mohn.” Playing off the pun, it was said that the cookies stuffed ...

The hamantaschen is perhaps the most recognizable symbol of the Jewish holiday of Purim. This triangle-shaped pastry is often served with a wide variety of fillings, from fruits like blueberry or apricot to sweet options such as chocolate or coconut.

The pastry, however, wasn't baked into the holiday until the 16th century, when it was inspired by the German cookie mohntaschen (mohn meaning poppy seed and tash meaning pockets). Butnick said, "Haman is the villain of the Purim story. And so, Jews sort of said, 'Wait, what if we called this cookie a hamantaschen?