Fun­fet­ti Hamantaschen

Makes: 30 to 36

On the table in … three hours, includ­ing one hour of rest­ing time

Although haman­taschen have always been one of my favorite Jew­ish treats, they are long over­due for a rebrand from their rep­u­ta­tion as a dry, fla­vor­less cook­ie at the back of the deli case. Every spring, my fam­i­ly would fill, fold, and bake dozens of haman­taschen, filled with pop­py seed or prune fill­ing in prepa­ra­tion for Purim. The recipe here is not the prune-filled haman­taschen of my child­hood. Inspired by my own spring­time birth­day, I updat­ed and veg­a­nized my favorite hol­i­day cook­ie with a dash of almond extract, col­or­ful sprin­kles, and a sim­ple cashew ​“cheese­cake” fill­ing for a birth­day-wor­thy haman­taschen that can be made all year-round.

Dough

¾ cup unsalt­ed veg­an but­ter, at room temperature

½ cup sugar

¼ cup applesauce

1 tea­spoon vanil­la extract

1 tea­spoon almond extract

2¼ cups all-pur­pose flour, plus more as needed

1 table­spoon cornstarch

1 tea­spoon bak­ing powder

¼ tea­spoon sea salt

¼ cup rain­bow sprinkles 

Fill­ing

1½ cups raw cashews, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes

2 table­spoons cornstarch 

2 table­spoons coconut oil, melted

⅓ cup water

¼ cup sugar

1 tea­spoons vanil­la extract 

1 table­spoon lemon juice

1 tea­spoon lemon zest

½ tea­spoon almond extract 

½ tea­spoon salt

Glaze

¼ cup plain unsweet­ened non-dairy milk

2 table­spoons maple syrup

Make the dough

Food proces­sor: In the bowl of a food proces­sor, com­bine the veg­an but­ter, sug­ar, apple­sauce, vanil­la, almond extract, flour, corn­starch, bak­ing pow­der, and salt, puls­ing until just com­bined. Add the sprin­kles, puls­ing two or three times to incor­po­rate. The dough should be moist but not sticky.

Stand mix­er: Using the pad­dle attach­ment, mix the veg­an but­ter, sug­ar, apple­sauce, vanil­la, and almond extract until light in col­or. Add the flour, corn­starch, bak­ing pow­der, and salt and mix on low until just incor­po­rat­ed. Add the sprin­kles and mix on low for 1 minute more to even­ly distribute.

Flat­ten the dough into a disk and wrap in plas­tic wrap. Refrig­er­ate for at least 45 minutes.

Make the filling

Drain the cashews. In a high-speed blender or food proces­sor, com­bine the cashews, corn­starch, melt­ed coconut oil, water, sug­ar, vanil­la, lemon juice, lemon zest, almond extract, and salt and blend until smooth. Note: The mix­ture will be thick, so you may have to scrape down the sides occa­sion­al­ly to blend. Set aside. 

Line 2 sheet pans with parch­ment paper. 

Remove the dough from the fridge and cut it in half. Rewrap one half of the dough with plas­tic wrap and keep in the fridge. Roll one half of the dough on a well-floured sur­face to ⅛ inch thickness.

Using a 3‑inch cir­cu­lar cook­ie cut­ter (or a glass), cut out cir­cles of dough and trans­fer them to the pre­pared sheet pans. Reroll the scraps until all the dough is used. If you find the dough is stick­ing to the cut­ter, dip it in flour before cutting.

Place 1 tea­spoon of the fill­ing in the cen­ter of each cir­cle. Pinch the dough into a tri­an­gle or fold the left edge of the dough toward the cen­ter, cov­er­ing a small por­tion of the fill­ing, then fold the right edge of the dough toward the cen­ter, slight­ly over­lap­ping the left, cre­at­ing a tri­an­gle shape, with the point clos­est to you. Fold over the top of the dough and pinch the edges togeth­er, or tuck it over like an enve­lope. Pinch each cor­ner to secure.

Make the glaze

In a small bowl, com­bine the non-dairy milk and maple syrup. Use a brush to brush the glaze over all the haman­taschen. Trans­fer the pans to the refrig­er­a­tor and chill for at least 15 min­utes. This will pre­vent them from open­ing and los­ing their shape when baking.

Mean­while, pre­heat the oven to 350°F. 

Trans­fer the sheet pans to the oven and bake for 12 to 14 min­utes, or until just gold­en. Note: If you roll the haman­taschen out too thick, it will take longer to bake. Check the haman­taschen for done­ness around 12 minutes.

Note: 

Freeze the haman­taschen in air­tight con­tain­ers for up to 6 months. Pre­pare the dough and fill­ing up to 4 days in advance and store in air­tight con­tain­ers sep­a­rate­ly in the refrig­er­a­tor. Left­over fill­ing is great on top of oat­meal, added to smooth­ies, or on toast.

Vari­a­tion: 

To use this haman­taschen dough as a base for oth­er fill­ings, omit the almond extract and sprin­kles. Use a thick fill­ing that won’t seep liq­uid when cook­ing, such as high-sug­ar jams (I use Bonne Maman brand), choco­late hazel­nut spread, apple but­ter, or a pop­py seed fill­ing. Haman­taschen are a blank can­vas for fillings!

From Nosh: Plant-For­ward Recipes Cel­e­brat­ing Mod­ern Jew­ish Cui­sineby Mic­ah Siva. Reprint­ed by per­mis­sion of The Book Col­lec­tive Studio.