Mohn Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen are traditional Jewish cookies, usually eaten on Pesach. The Yiddish name "Hamantaschen" literally translates to “Haman’s pocket”. Various fillings exist, traditional fillings include apricot, prune and, as used in the following recipe, poppy seeds (Yiddish: "Mohn").

Ingredients

Dough:

75 g butter
60 g sugar

1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp orange zest
¼ tsp salt
175 g flour

Filling:

100 g poppy seeds
60 g butter
120 ml milk
75 g sugar
40 g honey
1 pinch salt
1 egg

Preparation

Soften the butter at room temperature and stir together with the sugar. Blend in the egg, vanilla, orange zest and the salt, then sift flour into the bowl and knead until a smooth dough ball forms. Form the dough into a flat disk and refrigerate overnight.

Grind the poppy seeds, mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder. Heat butter, milk, sugar, honey and salt in a saucepan over medium heat, until the butter is melted. Whisk egg, then slowly add the warm liquid, whisking constantly and briskly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat over medium heat, constantly whisking, until the mixture thickens. Blend in the ground poppy seeds, then cool in the refrigerator for approximately an hour.

Roll the dough on a floured surface, about 2 mm thick. Use a drinking glass with a rim diameter of about 9 cm to cut circles of the dough. Gather the scraps and roll again. Place about a teaspoon of the poppy filling on every dough circle, grasp one side of the circle and fold it towards the center to make a flap that covers the one third of the circle. Repeat with the other two sides to form a triangle.

Place the hamantaschen on a lined baking sheet, bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the oven, preheated to 175 °C.

Makes 15 hamantaschen.