In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add orange zest, orange juice, vanilla extract, and 2 eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add to butter mixture until just combined. Divide dough into thirds. Wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove one-third of the dough from the refrigerator at a time. On a liberally floured surface, roll dough to a 1/8-inch thickness. With a 3-inch fluted round cutter, cut out as many circles as possible, and place on a prepared baking pan. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile make the poppy-seed filling: Grind poppy seeds in a food processor. Place seeds in a medium saucepan. Add milk and honey. Cook over a medium-low heat until thickened, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Add raisins and lemon zest. Remove from heat. Cool completely before using.
Remove chilled circles from refrigerator. Place each filling into a medium pastry bag fitted with a coupler. Pipe 2 teaspoons of filling into the center of each circle. Whisk together remaining egg with 1 teaspoon of water. Brush edges with egg wash. Fold in sides to form a triangle. Pinch dough to enclose the filling.
Bake the cookies in the center rack of the oven until golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets for 5 minutes; then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
You can substitute apricot preserves for the poppy-seed filling.
My husband and I got creative with our hamentashen this year. We used a simple sugar cookie recipe and filled them with crushed peanut butter cups, heath bar, fruit jellies, brownie batter, and chocolate cream. I then dipped them in melted chocolate and added pink sprinkles to the white chocolate ones.
Made these this afternoon and they were terrific! The only thing we would change is to roll them a little thicker than 1/8" because they were difficult to squeeze into hat form. Its so worth it to make the poppy seed filling- its terrific!
The dried fruit filling made with pitted prunes, dried apricots, and raisins, jam, and sugar is the more traditional filling and is delicious ;
My family loves hamantaschen but only with the dried fruit filling
The dough sounds really good, but I would make a totally different filling.
Find another great hamentashen recipe at http://www.shabbatandchagim.blogspot.com
what happened to original recipe?