February 27, 2022
I love making hamantaschen for the Jewish holiday of Purim. My kids love them too, and they never last too long in my kitchen. I love the traditional cookies filled with prune (lechvar), poppy seed (munn) or apricot.
Now that I’m a mom, I of course wanted to pass on the same cookie making tradition to my own children. My one problem is that my kids don’t want prune or apricot filling. They want chocolate, Nutella or cookie butter. For years I refused to cater to these requests and figured that if I continued to stick to traditional fillings, they would come around. Well, Mia is now partial to apricot, but Eli never came around to my way of thinking.
So here I am making chocolate chip cookie hamantaschen, filling them with chocolate hazelnut spread, or cookie butter. This year I made dreams come true with my cookie combination. Sure I’ll still have to bake the traditional hamantaschen of my childhood, but I must admit, these chocolate chip cookie hamantaschen are delicious. Filling and all!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Hamantaschen
Adapted from Shannon Sarna at Kosher.com
For the Dough
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (or margarine), at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon whole or 2% milk (or almond milk)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips, heaping
Possible Fillings:
Chocolate hazelnut spread
Cookie butter
Directions
In the bowl of a standing mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the two sugars for 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice while mixing. Add the egg, milk and vanilla until thoroughly mixed.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Chill the dough for at least an hour (or up to 24) before rolling it out.
Place oven rack in the center of oven. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Put a little bit of flour on your work surface so the dough doesn’t stick to the counter.
Take 1/2 the dough and roll it out until its about 1/4 inch thick. You may also need to sprinkle some flour on the rolling pin so the dough doesn’t stick to it. Using a round cookie cutter (or a glass) cut out multiple circles from the dough. Using a bench scraper or a spatula, carefully lift each circle and place onto the parchment paper.
Place 1/4 teaspoon of Nutella (or cookie butter) in the center of the circle, pinching up the dough tightly to form a sturdy triangle. You may be tempted to use more filling than I suggested, but in this case, less is more!
Gather your scraps and roll out the dough again. Make your circles and add your filling.
Repeat process with the other half of the dough.
Place formed cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes, or the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This will help ensure the corners stay tightly closed while baking.
Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until cookies are slightly browned. Let cool on wire cooling rack.
Makes 18-20 cookies