Description
These delicious and easy vegan hamantaschen are a fun and tasty way to celebrate Purim and drown out his name!
Ingredients
Scale
- 365g (about 2 ⅞ cups) all purpose flour (see note 1)
- ½ cup organic cane sugar (can sub coconut sugar)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 2 servings vegan egg replacer (see note 2)
- ⅓ cup + 1-2 tbsp canned coconut milk (see note 3)
- About 1 cup total of filling, suggestions and recipes in the article above under their own heading
Instructions
- Note: Please measure your flour carefully. Digging a scoop into the bag packs more flour in there which can give you inconsistent results. For the best results, weigh your flour using an inexpensive food scale. I have more information about this in the article above in its own heading.
- These instructions assume your fillings are ready. Make sure all your fillings are prepped before beginning the dough process because it doesn’t take long to get to the assembly stage.
- Make the dough: To a large mixing bowl, add your flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Give it a good whisk and then use a large spoon to make a small well in the center. Add in the canned coconut milk or softened vegan butter and your prepared vegan egg replacer. Mix until a firm and smooth dough--I find it easiest to use my hands to make it come together once the liquid is mixed through. If it just won’t come together, add just a teaspoon or two of water or canned coconut milk and mix some more. If you accidentally add too much liquid and the dough is sticky, sprinkle on a bit of flour and work that in.
- Roll it out: On a lightly floured work surface (I love a large Boos board for all my baking), roll out your dough with a lightly floured straight rolling pin until about ⅛ inch thick. A slight bit thinner than that is OK, but you want your hamantaschen to stay put when you build them. Thicker is not recommended as it will cause your hamantaschen to push out during the baking process.
- Cut rounds: Using a 3 inch diameter biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or glass, cut as many rounds as you can fit, then gather the scrap and ball it up and set it aside for now. We’ll roll that out later.
- Prep oven and pans: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius) and line 2-3 baking trays with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Note on fillings: I used 3 different fillings here: apricot, cherry, and poppyseed. I’ve listed some information on how to make the fillings in my homemade filling recipe above. If buying, buy a very thick jam or preserve, the thicker the better. Too thin and it will overflow. A good test is the first spoonful into the jam should hold it’s shape and not collapse on itself. That way, it won’t overflow in the oven. Many folks use cherry pie filling for the cherry. I find it too gloopy and saccharine (too sweet), so I use dark cherry preserves instead. I also use low sugar apricot preserves. I made my own poppy seed filling (recipe in the article above).
- Fill ‘em up: Fill your hamantaschen. If you followed my tip about 3 inch circles, use NO MORE than one teaspoon of filling. In fact, in the preserve-filled hamantaschen I used a scant teaspoon (just under). You’ll have plenty of filling and it will keep the hamantaschen easy to shape and this will also help it keep its shape in the oven. Since I used 3 different fillings, I divided the number of circles I had by 3 and added an even number of fillings according to each group of circles.
- Close the hamantaschen: There’s a few ways to do this, but I’m going to give you what I feel is the best method to keep them from opening up in the oven. See the article above for a picture, but what I did was fold each layer with one overlapping the other, kind of like a box. Fold the left diagonal side in, then overlap it with the right diagonal side, creating a triangular tip. Pull up the bottom edge--the right side of the bottom flap should lie on top of the bottom of the right diagonal flap, creating a completed triangle (don’t worry if it’s not an equilateral triangle--this isn’t geometry class!). The left side of the bottom flap should be tucked under the left diagonal flap. For me, the picture makes more sense than I can explain. This is a pretty method but it’s also functional in that it helps keep the hamantaschen together while it bakes. Repeat with remaining circles (it gets way easier after the first or second one, I promise).
- Tip: Have a cookie spatula handy to transport your completed hamantaschen from your board to your lined baking sheet so you don’t mess up the fragile edges. Place each cookie about an inch and a half to 2 inches apart. They spread a little, not a lot with the canned coconut milk. If you used vegan butter I recommend chilling the hamantaschen about 20-30 min before baking, or you can take your chances and just space them apart a bit more.
- Reroll the dough (you may need to flour it and your work surface again).
- Optional step: This step is optional but it helps the pastry brown and gives it a nice flavor and texture. Use a pastry brush (or any brush you only use for baking) to lightly coat the sides of each hamantaschen with vegan egg wash, coconut milk, or coconut oil. I make vegan egg wash by mixing 3 tablespoons of non-dairy milk and 1 tablespoon of agave or maple syrup.
- Bake: Bake each tray for 12-18 minutes (depends a bit on your oven) until the corners start to turn lightly golden brown and the cookie has firmed up a bit. You should rotate and swap your trays (the bottom rack tray with the top) halfway through. Mine were perfect after 16 minutes.
- Chill out: Let cool (the hardest part of making them, honestly) and enjoy! Some people dust their hamantaschen with powdered sugar, but I find them sweet enough on their own.
- Store leftovers: Store your vegan hamantaschen in a covered container on the counter and they’ll stay fresh for 3-4 days, though their quality will start to decline as will any baked good made without preservatives. However, these freeze great, so wrap in plastic wrap and freezer paper, and freeze up to 3 months. I recommend freezing the covered tray until they are frozen, then you can wrap them up and place in a freezer-safe bag to save space.
Notes
- Note 1: I recommend unbleached all purpose flour. To make gluten-free vegan hamantaschen, I recommend a good quality gluten-free blend flour, like King Arthur Baking Company Measure for Measure Gluten-Free Flour or Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour. You could also try substituting half a cup of the flour for tapioca flour to improve the elasticity of the dough to make up for the lack of gluten. Note that you may need a bit more liquid to make up for how much the flour utilizes it.
- Note 2: My favorite egg replacer in pastry is definitely Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer. It’s flavorless, does an excellent job of binding, disappears (visually, unlike flax), is lighter than most vegan egg replacers, and it’s fairly easy to find. I can get it online or at my regional chain grocery store. You can also use flax eggs, chia eggs, or your favorite vegan egg replacer.
- Note 3: I use canned coconut milk as a replacement for oil because it is still high in fat and produces a nice rich and soft pastry dough. I wouldn’t recommend substituting straight water, but you could sub half water and half canned coconut milk to lower the fat. You could use softened vegan butter instead of the canned coconut milk, but you may want to chill the assembled cookies for a little bit, as I’m not sure if they would spread more or not since I don’t use vegan butter in baking often.
- Note 4: About the fillings… Because there are SO MANY different cultural backgrounds within the Jewish diaspora, it’s really hard to say which fillings are the MOST traditional, much less cover all fillings for Hamantaschen. In the article above, I have a section on making fillings. I have one for poppy seed filling and one for apricot, which you can adjust for virtually any fruit filling. You can also buy them, you just want to make sure your fillings are very thick so they don’t overflow, but moist enough that they don’t harden up when baking your vegan hamantaschen.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Snack
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Jewish
Keywords: Vegan, Oil-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, Vegan Hamantaschen