Hamantaschen are a traditional Jewish cookie made for the holiday of Purim, or Jewish Halloween. They are basically the perfect cookie in my humble opinion. What is better than a sweet cookie filled with delicious jam? When I was younger, my mom and I had to bake so many batches of hamantaschen because my family and friends would gobble them up so quickly. My mom tried to hide them so we wouldn’t have to keep baking them every night, but that never worked-someone always found them.
While I love classic hamantaschen, (find my recipe and instructions with pictures here), I kind of get bored of the same old thing. I need to mix it up a little, turn a classic recipe on its head. We used to experiment with different fillings a lot when I was younger. We would try filling the hamantasch dough with chocolate chips, marshmallows, chocolate spread and other various creations that didn’t go so well. We also used to try a peanut butter and jelly filling. For some reason, the peanut butter didn’t really bake well. It would dry out and become crumbly. I thought to myself, what if I make a peanut butter dough and fill it with delicious fruit jams! Peanut butter and jelly hamantaschen! This was my mini aha moment. I was so proud of the idea. The only problem was that I hadn’t seen it done anywhere which means there are no recipes available. I was challenged with developing my own recipe and I am so happy with the results. These are a great alternative to the classic and will appeal to the kid in everyone. Chag sameach!
- 1 cup honey
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup shortening
- ¾ cup smooth peanut butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 4½ cups flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ¾ tsp. salt
- Your favorite flavor jam filling*
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the honey, brown sugar, shortening, peanut butter, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time until combined.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together. Do not mix too much or the cookies will be tough.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour in the fridge.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll the dough out thin.
- Using a round cookie cutter (I use a cutter that is 2 ½ to 3 inches in diameter) or a drinking glass, cut out the cookies.
- Using a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, fill the cookies with the jam filling. *Make sure the jam is oven proof meaning it won’t melt and ooze out of the cookies. Apricot and prune butter work nicely as well as anything labeled “oven proof”, “bakers filling”, or “cake and pastry filling”.
- Pinch 3 corners, forming the classic triangle shape and bake for 8-10 minutes on parchment lined baking sheet until light golden brown.
- Allow to cool-the filling will be extremely hot! Enjoy!