Sylvia Lav’s Perfect Hamantaschen
- Total Time
- 2 to 3 days
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- For the prune butter:
- 3pounds pitted prunes, ideally tart ones
- Juice of 1 large lemon (or more if your prunes aren’t tart)
- 2 to 3tablespoons sugar
- Water
- For the dough:
- 4cups flour
- 4eggs
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 1cup of oil
- 3tablespoons of warm water
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 1cup sugar
- For assembly:
- Melted butter, about one stick
- Extra flour
Preparation
For the Prune Butter
- Step 1
Put prunes in large pot. Add lemon juice and sugar.
- Step 2
In a separate pot, boil water. Pour boiling water over the prunes.
- Step 3
Cook the prunes on medium heat for 20 minutes. Turn heat off, cover, and let them sit overnight in the pot on the stove.
- Step 4
The next morning, beat the prunes in a mixer on low until they form a smooth mixture, with no pieces of skin visible. The consistency should be a smooth enough purée that it can drop off a spoon.
For the Dough
- Step 5
Make a pile of flour, baking powder and salt. Dig a well into the middle.
- Step 6
Put two eggs in the middle with half the oil and water, half the sugar, and half the lemon rind. Do not break the flour walls.
- Step 7
With a fork, use gentle circular motions to mix flour into the middle from the walls while keeping the walls solid.
- Step 8
Gradually, very slowly, add the rest of the eggs, oil, water, sugar and lemon rind until everything is mixed in. Finally, mix in the rest of the walls. Your dough will be very sticky. Use a dough scraper to scrape it up. Knead it with small dustings of flour (not too much extra!) until you get a nice, silky dough. Wrap it up in waxed paper and put it in the fridge overnight.
Assembly
- Step 9
Cut the dough into three segments. On a floured surface, roll out one segment evenly to about ⅛" thick.
- Step 10
Melt some butter in a dish and set aside with a pastry brush.
- Step 11
Dip an inverted glass or 2- or 3-inch-diameter glass or cookie cutter into flour and use it to cut as many circular pieces of dough as possible, re-dipping into flour as needed. Paint an X of melted butter onto the center of each circle with the brush.
- Step 12
Using two teaspoons, place a small amount of prune butter in the center of each circle, on top of the butter. If you use too much they will fall apart.
- Step 13
Lift up the edges of the circle so they form a triangle. Gently pinch each corner closed.
- Step 14
Bake at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. The corners should be just slightly golden-brown. Watch them near the end because they go from golden to burnt very easily.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I cut this recipe by a third. I used ~ 1 1/2 - 2 tsp per 3" round and still had lots of (very good) filling left. I made a batch of dough from Joan Nathan's Solomon's Table at the same time (butter instead of oil, 1/2 the sugar, egg yolks only) and preferred it quite a bit, though I did add some extra flour to this to combat the sticky, and maybe that's what made it tough.
This recipe is by far the most difficult to work with dough I’ve ever worked with. The oil is overwhelming, seeping out of the dough as it chills and makes the dough crack as its rolled out. My mom and I make hamentashen almost yearly and have never had so much trouble with a recipe. We used a different filling only because I’m not a big fan of prunes. The dough tastes okay but is not worth the time and energy required to force it to work. Would not recommend and will never make it again.
The first time I made this, I observed to the letter the guidance about gradual stirring from the middle of the well on a flat surface. Even after lengthy chilling, the dough was quite soft, and while it was easy to roll and cut into circles, forming such a flabby dough into neat tricorns around the filling was awkward. The finished product was ... okay. Perhaps I was not as careful about the mixing with the 2nd batch, but the final product was tough. I'm going back to my "tart crust" recipe.
This is the best hamantaschen recipe I've ever tried (don't tell my aunt!). The oil means it never sticks to the baking sheet, and the lemon zest is the real star of the show. I omit the sugar from the prunes and it's still plenty sweet.
This recipe is by far the most difficult to work with dough I’ve ever worked with. The oil is overwhelming, seeping out of the dough as it chills and makes the dough crack as its rolled out. My mom and I make hamentashen almost yearly and have never had so much trouble with a recipe. We used a different filling only because I’m not a big fan of prunes. The dough tastes okay but is not worth the time and energy required to force it to work. Would not recommend and will never make it again.
How much boiling water is poured over the prunes?
I do just enough to cover the prunes and like how it comes out.
I cut this recipe by a third. I used ~ 1 1/2 - 2 tsp per 3" round and still had lots of (very good) filling left. I made a batch of dough from Joan Nathan's Solomon's Table at the same time (butter instead of oil, 1/2 the sugar, egg yolks only) and preferred it quite a bit, though I did add some extra flour to this to combat the sticky, and maybe that's what made it tough.
The dough seemed quite oily. When stored in the refrigerator overnight, oil leaked out. It was also tough to roll-a lot of flour needed to be added. In the end, it tasted alright.
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