Tag: healthy hamantaschen

Healthy Thumbprint Hamantaschen (Egg Free!)

I thought I was done with hamantaschen baking this year. My corndog hamantaschen were a huge hit and that was good enough for me! Except every time I bought classic hamantaschen for the kids, my allergic toddler would watch his older siblings enviously and each time I promised myself to make an egg-free version.

I thought about making classic hamantaschen using aquafaba, that slimy juice at the bottom of a can of chickpeas. It’s said to be a great alternative for eggs in vegan baking, and I’ve used it before in muffins. Of course I got busy and my aquafaba-infused hamantaschen experiments went to the wayside.

But then this week, I had a business meeting in my ‘hood, and Chaya brought me a much needed cup of coffee with a side of crunchy thumbprint cookies. The cookies were delicious, so, like any good food blogger, I asked for the recipe. When I heard that the cookies were egg free with few ingredients, I knew I had to whip them up for my son.

I drove home dreaming about the cookies and it hit me – I wanted to make egg-free hamantaschen, so why not make egg-free thumbprint hamantaschen cookies! They had jam anyway, right?


So I got right to work on the 5-ingredient dough, which took less than 5 minutes to make, and I ransacked my fridge for all the jam I could find. I’m kind of a jam hoarder, so I wasn’t surprised to find an assortment of flavors in the back of the fridge, including, blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, apricot, fig and plum (told you I was a jam hoarder! my favorite place to buy them is Homegoods!).

Would  you check out that beautiful jam filling?

The cookies taste like a crisp granola cookie, only mildly sweet, so I couldn’t help but finish them off with some melted chocolate. Chocolate makes everything better.

The true test was giving these to my son, who is prone to scraping the chocolate off anything and everything, instead of biting into it. I’m always reminding him, “Bite, don’t lick!”, but he always goes back to his chocolate (or cheese!) licking when I’m not looking.


I handed him a hamantasch and he held it in his hand and studied it for a minute or two. I thought he was going to start scraping off the chocolate, but to my surprise, he actually took a bite! He continued to eat his way through, enjoying every morsel. Success!

Purim is just two days away, so we’ll call these “last licks!” (pun intended!). If you’ve been looking for that healthy hamantaschen recipe, you’ve got it. And just in time.

Healthy Thumbprint Hamantaschen

1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup almond flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (see note)
1/2 cup canola oil
pinch of salt
good quality jam
1/2 cup chocolate, melted

Method:

In a bowl, whisk the oats, almond flour, white whole wheat flour and salt. Add the maple syrup and oil and mix to form a dough. Place two tablespoon scoops of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and form into triangles. Using your thumb, make an indent in the center of each cookie. Fill the indentations with jam and bake at 375 degrees for 15-18 minutes, until browned and crisp. Cool for 10 minutes to allow the cookies to set and transfer to a rack. Drizzle with melted chocolate.

NOTE: These cookies are very mildly sweet. Feel free to adjust sweetness to taste.

VARIATION: I prefer these cookies crunchy, but for slightly softer cookies, bake at 350 for 15 minutes.


Related Recipes:

cowboy cookie dough bites
healthy date & almond hamantaschen
Grape Nut coconut crunch cookies
oatmeal cookies

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Date & Almond Hamantaschen

You know Purim is coming around when the blogosphere is overflowing with creative hamantasch recipes. It almost feels as if no-one makes classic hamantaschen anymore! The funny thing is, I’ll make just about any triangular-shaped-cookie-concoction besides classic hamantaschen. I’ve heard way too many disaster stories of the corners splitting open and jam spilling all over the place.

Call me a hypocrite but if I want good old-fashioned hamantaschen, I reach for the highly-processed Reisman’s variety. I mean, if I’m gonna eat a hamantasch, I might as well eat. a. hamantasch. Right?

But if I’m eating a different kind of hamantasch, well then I might as well go crazy, right? And by crazy I mean whipping up some sushi hamantaschen, baklava hamantaschen, or a trio of savory puff pastry hamantaschen.

Believe me, I’ve been dreaming up some crazy hamantaschen ideas all year long! But as we got closer to Purim, I couldn’t imagine breaking the momentum of my diet for some 3-cornered cookies. Instead, I challenged myself to come up with a healthy hamantasch for a change. And by healthy, I don’t mean spelt, or whole wheat, or even sugar-free. I’m talking no-flour, no-baking, no-dough or jam of any kind!

My first thought was to create a raw hamantasch using dates to create a cookie “dough”. I went to my local produce market to pick up some medjool dates and there was my inspiration – marzipan stuffed dates! Brilliant!

I got right to work creating my healthy no-bake hamantaschen. It’s amazing how something with such few natural ingredients can come out so spectacular! Not only do the raw hamantaschen resemble a real cookie, they taste incredible too, all without the guilt.

The best part about making these cookies is choosing what to roll them in. While coconut, pistachios and cocoa keep things healthy, you can up the fun-factor with some nonpareils or colorful sprinkles. Don’t worry, my lips are sealed. We’ll call it our Purim secret ;)

Date & Almond Hamantaschen

10 oz pitted medjool dates (approximately 1 cup, condensed)
1/2 cup almonds
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
2 oz almond paste (canned or use recipe below)
cocoa powder, coconut & ground pistachios, for rolling

Method:

Add dates, almonds, cocoa powder, cinnamon and sea salt to a food processor and process until the mixture starts to clump together and pulls away from the side of the bowl. If it doesn’t form a ball of dough, add a bit more nuts.

Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap and place the date mixture on it. Cover the mixture with another sheet of plastic wrap, wrapping it around the bottom of the tray so that it’s secure. Using a rolling pin, roll out the “dough” from on top of the plastic wrap until it is about 1/8″ thick. Remove the top layer of plastic wrap and cut the dough into circles using a cookie or biscuit cutter. Collect the scraps and roll them out as above to create more circles.

Roll the almond paste into teaspoon-sized balls and place in the center of the cookies. Fold the cookies over the almond paste from each side and pinch lightly at the corners to create a triangle. Roll the hamantaschen in cocoa powder, coconut and/or ground pistachios.

Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to one month. May also be frozen for up to six months.

YIELD: approximately 18 hamantaschen.

Homemade Almond Paste (Egg-Free)

1 1/2 cups blanched almonds
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbsp water
1 tsp almond extract
pinch of salt

Method:

Add the almonds and sugar to a food processor and process until the almonds are finely ground (stop to scrape the sides of the bowl, if needed). Add remaining ingredients and blend until the mixture forms into a dough and pulls away from the side of the bowl.

Wrap the almond paste tightly in plastic wrap and store in a ziploc bag. Can be refrigerated for up to 3 months or frozen for up to 6 months.

YIELD: approximately 12 oz. or 1 1/2 cups.

Other hamantasch recipes:

trio of savory puff pastry hamantaschen
sushi hamantaschen
baklava hamantaschen
“The Hamantini” Purim cocktail

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