Purim is coming soon and I have already started to think about my mishloh manot (sending gifts of food and drink to family and friends in Hebrew). The obvious treats most of us include in the box is sweet hamantaschen cookies. Last year, I shared a vegan sweet hamantaschen recipe, you need to check it out! This year I already shared another sweet hamantaschen recipe in my monthly newsletter - chocolate hamantaschen.
This time around though, I want to add savory hamantaschen too. If you have never heard of this name for these delicious cookies, in short, it’s a traditional cookie you have during Purim (a Jewish holiday). The cookies are famous for their triangle shape and they always contain a filling, such as chocolate, jam, and so on. I chose to fill these savory hamantaschen with cheese and spinach - YUM!
Any pie filling can work as the filling for hamantaschen cookies because the dough for the cookies is also very similar to a pie shell. Win-win!
In order to get the triangle shape, you need to have round cookies cut from the dough. You can use a round cookie cutter or any cup you have in your kitchen. The size of the cookie will change by the size of the circle you cut out.
You place the filling in the middle of the cut dough and close it with your hands to the shape of a triangle cookie.
To garnish the savory hamantaschen, I brush the cookies with a bit of water and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. You can use any seed that you like of course.
I hope you will have a happy and enjoyable Purim - here is the recipe:
Spinach Hamantaschen
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup (150 grams) flour
- ⅓ cup (75 grams) butter cold and cut to cubes
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the filling:
- 1 cup frozen spinach (I used the one that comes in cubes)
- ⅓ cup (70 grams) grated mozzarella cheese
- 1 egg
- Salt and pepper, by your taste
For garnish
- Handful sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a blender bowl, blend the flour, salt and butter until it becomes a crumbly mixture.
- Add the egg and continue to blend until the dough starts to unify.
- Shape the dough into a disc-shape on baking paper and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Fill a pot with boiling water to cook the frozen spinach until completely thawed.
- Rinse the spinach well.
- In a mixing bowl, mix all filling ingredients well.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out on a floured surface.
- Use a glass or a round cookie cutter to cut circles out of the dough.
- Fill each dough circle with 1 teaspoon of filling and close the dough into triangular-shaped cookies.
- Brush the cookies with water and sprinkle sesame seeds over each cookie.
- Place the cookies on a baking tray.
- Place the baking tray with the cookies in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 170°C / 350°F with the fan.
- Bake the cookies for 14 minutes. Check them after about 10 minutes and if they're starting to get too brown, take them out.
- Indulge and enjoy
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