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All-The-Seeds Hamantaschen

Photo of Hamantaschen made with mixed seeds
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell
  • Active Time

    1 hour

  • Total Time

    4 hours

These hamantaschen are filled with a celebration of seeds set in chewy-soft caramelized honey. While poppy is traditional, we threw in sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin as well for variety and crunch. Be sure to work quickly when forming the filling into balls: It will firm up as it cools, but soften again when you bake the cookies. Note that this recipe uses butter, which may make it unsuitable for some kosher Purim celebrations.

Ingredients

Makes about 24

Dough

¾ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. kosher salt
1½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup (100 g) sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest

Filling and assembly

¼ cup (36 g) raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
¼ cup (34 g) raw sunflower seeds
¼ cup (39 g) poppy seeds, plus more for sprinkling
¼ cup (34 g) sesame seeds, plus more for sprinkling
½ cup honey
2 Tbsp. tahini
¾ tsp. kosher salt, plus more
1 large egg

Special equipment

A 3"-diameter cookie cutter
  1. Dough

    Step 1

    Whisk baking powder, salt, and 1½ cups (188 g) flour in a medium bowl to combine. Set aside. Beat butter, cream cheese, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg and orange zest and beat, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, just until combined. Reduce speed to low and with motor running, gradually add dry ingredients. Beat until dough comes together and no streaks of dry flour remain.

    Step 2

    把面团分成两半,每一半piece of beeswax or plastic wrap. Pat into a 1"-thick disk. Wrap tightly and chill until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours.

  2. Filling

    Step 3

    Preheat oven to 325°F. Mix pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, ¼ cup poppy seeds, and ¼ cup sesame seeds in a medium heatproof bowl. Heat honey in a small saucepan over medium, stirring occasionally with a heatproof rubber spatula, until it bubbles and foams and turns dark amber (an instant read thermometer should register 300°F), about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in tahini and ¾ tsp. salt. Pour over seeds and stir to coat. Let cool slightly (you want the mixture to be as hot as possible since it hardens as it cools, but not so hot you could burn your hands). Working quickly, scoop out heaping teaspoonfuls of filling and roll into 24 balls.

    Step 4

    Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a scant ¼" thick. Punch out cookies with cutter. Transfer to 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. (You should ideally have 12 cookies per baking sheet.) They won’t spread, so don’t worry about getting them close. Gather up and reroll any scraps.

    Step 5

    Beat egg with 1 Tbsp. water and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Working one at a time, brush rounds with egg wash and place a ball of filling in the center. Fold sides of dough up to make a triangle, pinching corners to seal. Brush sides of dough with egg wash and sprinkle with more sesame seeds and poppy seeds.

    Step 6

    Bake hamantaschen, rotating pans top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until crust is golden brown and filling is puffed, 18–22 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets.

    Step 7

    Do ahead:Cookies can be baked 3 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

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  • To MTWERY in Vermont. Did you use regular or kosher salt? Kosher salt is almost twice as salty as regular salt, so that may have been the problem. Hope this is helpful.

    • Leslie B.

    • Chicagoland

    • 3/14/2022

  • The dough for these hamantaschen is very good and not too sweet. I did end up rolling it thinner than the recipe recommends, and that made it easier to fold. My biggest problem with the recipe is the excessive amount of salt. I used a half teaspoon instead of the called-for 3/4 tsp, and it was still way too salty. Maybe these were intended as savory rather than sweet hamantaschen, but I am not familiar with such. The mix of seeds does make the filling interesting, and it could be good with maple syrup instead of the honey. I did find that the filling hardened quickly, but that was not a problem. It also expanded more than I expected when baked, and it became quite hard again when the cookies cooled.

    • mtwery

    • Vermont

    • 3/13/2020

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