Plate expectations: Rainbow Hamantashen

Hamantaschen can be made with yeast dough, a sour cream dough, a rich short crust or biscuit pastry. I have chosen to use a rich short crust pastry.  This is made using four colours of pastry, patch worked together, rolled out and then shaped into Hamantaschen.

In addition to the colour, I have flavoured each colour pastry with a different flavouring ~ this is optional but certainly fun!

I have given you four different types of fillings.  Make these before you make the pastry as they need to be cool before using.

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NB: The quantity of pastry is quite substantial – it does work using half!

Preparation Time: 40 minutes plus resting time

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Makes: Approximately 60

 

Ingredients

For the Pastry 

570g plain flour

300g unsalted butter or margarine

Zest of 2 lemons

4 teaspoons lemon juice

2 eggs

100g caster sugar

Food colours: 4 different eg red, orange, green and purple

Food flavours: 4 different eg vanilla, rose water, orange, chocolate

 

Plus Your Choice of Fillings:

Fruit Filling

75g sultanas

50g chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 eating apple – Peeled and grated

50g soft brown sugar

50g unsalted butter or margarine

Method:

Add the sultanas, cinnamon, chopped walnuts, sugar, and butter to the food processor and pulse gently to combine.

Stir in the grated apple.

 

Apricot

250g dried pitted apricots

60ml water

60ml orange juice

25g caster sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Method:

Make the apricot filling by combining all the ingredients together in a saucepan. Stir and bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes. When there is about 1 tablespoon of liquid left, transfer to the liquidiser or food processor. Remove and transfer to a dish.

Leave to cool and then leave in the fridge until ready to use. It is easier to use when it is completely cold.

Chocolate

Use 1 teaspoon of Nutella in the middle of each hamantaschen.

 

Traditional Poppy Seed

150g poppy seeds

120ml honey

120ml milk / soya milk/ coconut milk

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Finely grind poppy seeds in spice mill.

Transfer to a medium saucepan and add honey, milk, lemon juice, sugar, and salt.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, until thickened and a spatula holds a trail when dragged across bottom of pan, about 4 minutes; stir in vanilla. Let cool.

 

For the Glaze

1 egg white – lightly whisked

2 tablespoons – poppy seeds

2 tablespoons – Hundreds and thousands

Final Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 400ºC/200ºF/ Gas mark 6.

Make the pastry by mixing all the ingredients together in a food processor. Divide the pastry into 4 portions.

Flavour and colour each portion of pastry separately. Add a teaspoon of colour and a teaspoon of flavour –optional to each batch. ( Ensure the food processor is very clean before adding the next pastry dough.)

Wrap each pastry batch in cling film and flatten. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.

To make rainbow hamantaschen, roll out the coloured pastry taking a little of each colour dough and roll so it is about 2cm thick. ~ a patchwork effect is what you want to make.

Using a 7.5 cm (3 inch) cutter make round templates. Repeat with the remaining pastry.

Now add a large tea spoonful of your choice of filling into each circle.

Draw up the sides to form a triangle, pinching the edges firmly together in the shape of a tricorn hat.

Line a baking tray with baking parchment paper.

Transfer the Hamantschen to the baking tray and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Glaze with egg white and then sprinkle with poppy seeds and hundreds and thousands for a magnificent finale.

To serve the stylish way: Dust with icing sugar.