I don’t like jelly hamantashen (Yidish המן־טאַשן; in Hebrew Oznei-Haman / אוזני המן). Those are for sissies. But everywhere you go, that’s the only flavor!
What I really really really like, and this should not come as a surprise to long time readers, are the mohn aka poppy seed ones. It was time for me to take matters into my own inept cooking hands! And I capture it here for all posterity and because I sort of made it up as I went but want to remember some details for next year.
Ingredients
- Pillsbury Pie Crusts 2 ct, 14.1 oz or some other similar brand because making things from scratch is hard
- Poppy Seeds or as I call it: “black gold”
- Butter
- Sugar
- Milk
- Nutella Hazelnut spread if you have picky kids that won’t eat the good stuff
- Egg to make them shiny
Instructions
To make the poppy seed filling:
Grind a bunch of poppy seed in a coffee grinder until you think it’s enough. Melt a bunch of butter (I did like half a bar) in the microwave. Then add the poppy seed. Finally add sugar. How much? If you are not an experienced baker, then imagine an amount that sounds like a crap load. Add twice as much. Mix it until you have a paste.
To make the dough:
Take out the pre-made pie crust, unroll it, use a cup to make circular cutouts. Roll the remaining dough then make more holes. Repeat until you have no more dough.
To make the cookies:
This is the hardest part. Using a teaspoon, put a bit of filling in the middle of each circle. Fight your instincts to add lots of poppy seed because you love it: it it makes the things behave like Shrinky Dinks when in the oven.
Fold it into a triangle, leaving a little window to showcase the black gold. Make sure to squeeze the corners real tight or more Shrinky Dinks!
And don’t forget to make a few with the Nutella for your snotty little kids who should know better.
Use a brush to cover the hamantashen with egg so they come out nice and shiny.
Bake
Put the hamantashen on a tray on top of parchment paper. Or don’t use the paper. I don’t know. But I did and it worked out.
Bake at 400 ℉ for about 10 minutes.
I highly recommend waiting for them to cool down before eating.
