The hamantaschen is a cookie with a filling, known for its triangular shape. It's a popular treat during the Jewish holiday of Purim where Haman features as the villain of the Purim story.
Similar to Halloween or Mardi Gras, Purim is celebrated with kids dressing up in costumes and exchanging "mishloach manot" (sending portions in Hebrew) - gift baskets of food and drink. The baskets are exchanged with family and friends on the day of Purim itself. The mitzvah of giving mishloach manot derives from the bible (book of Esther). This custom is inspired by the idea of ensuring that everyone has enough food and drink for the Purim feast and to encourage love and friendship amongst Jews and their neighbors.
Traditionally, mishloach manot is filled with sweets and yummy treats, which hamantaschen cookies are perfect for!
I was inspired by this blog post to decorate my hamantaschen cookies with sprinkles, as a colorful touch to my unique vegan hamantaschen recipe.
To make the recipe vegan I replaced butter with coconut oil. To replace eggs I used water. If you use purified coconut oil, the cookies wont have the coconut flavor at all. You can choose by your flavor. The cookies are crunchy and with the sweet Halva filling they create the perfect bite.
To create the triangle shape you use a round cookie cutter or a glass and simply fold the dough circles and pinch 3 times to create corners. For some of the cookies I used a cookie cutter with a pattern to make the edges more interesting. To keep the shape of the cookies while baking, I freeze the cookies for 30 minutes before baking them.
So without further ado, here's the recipe for you to enjoy:
Vegan Hamantaschen Cookies
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup (150 grams) flour
- 4 tablespoon (40 grams) powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup (80 grams) coconut oil (refrigerated so it is solidified)
- Pinch of salt
- 8 tablespoon cold water
For the filling and garnish:
- Halva spread (sweet sesame seed spread)
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- In a blender bowl, blend the flour, powdered sugar, salt and coconut oil until it becomes a crumbly mixture.
- Add the water 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.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out on a floured surface.
- Using a glass or a round cookie cutter, cut circles out of the dough.
- Fill each dough circle with 1 teaspoon of halva spread and close up the dough into a triangular-shaped cookies.
- Sprinkle the sprinkles 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 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 Happy Purim!
Notes
