My Double Raspberry Hamantaschen Cookies

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Soft and chewy raspberry hamantaschen, a common cookie for the Jewish holiday of Purim. These dairy cookies have a berry flavored dough, a raspberry chia jam filling and are folded into a triangle.

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This year, my favorite hamantaschen recipe gets an berry flavorful update. Times two.

What are hamantaschen?

Hamantaschen are triangular cookies with a filling in the center. They are associated with celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Raspberry hamantaschen

When it comes to hamantaschen, you’ve got lots of flavor options to choose from. Jams are a popular one. You can fill the center of the cookie using a spoon straight from the jar.

Or you can make it yourself, without having to can your own jam.

Instead, grab a bag of frozen raspberries and prepare a 3 ingredient raspberry chia jam. All you have to do is let the berries defrost for an hour. It’s really that simple.

The berries don’t end there. Crushed freeze dried raspberries are also mixed into the cookie dough. Doubling the berry flavors.

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Ingredients You’ll Need

• raspberries – two kinds are used in this recipe:
  • frozen – use them straight from the freezer
  • freeze dried – crushed with a spoon into a coarse powder. There are probably some broken pieces already at the bottom of the bag you purchased. Use them first if you want to save the whole raspberries for another use. Empty the bag into a bowl & return the whole pieces to the package.
• chia seeds
• maple syrup – to sweeten the raspberry chia filling
• butter, softened
• sugar – to sweeten the cookie and help it crisp in the oven
• egg – large
• vanilla extract
• all purpose flour – for best results, measure with a scale
• baking powder
• cinnamon & fine sea salt

HOW TO MAKE RASPBERRY HAMANTASCHEN

Prepare the raspberry chia jam filling

Place frozen raspberries, chia seeds and maple syrup into a small bowl. Stir together and set aside for 1 hour (or refrigerate overnight).

You don’t have to add any liquid to them. As the berries thaw, mash them lightly with a spoon to release their juices. This will hydrate the chia seeds. Stir occasionally. The longer it sits, the thicker and more like a pudding it will become.

This recipe makes enough raspberry chia jam for one batch of hamantaschen. If you’re also using other fillings, you’ll likely have some leftover. Enjoy this on its own, added to yogurt or mixed into a glass of water.

If using a store bought container of jam, skip this step. You won’t need the first 3 ingredients in the recipe.

Mix the cookie dough

In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light & fluffy. This can be done with a wooden spoon or a mixer.

Whisk in the egg and vanilla. You can start mixing with a spoon but to evenly combine all these wet ingredients, you’ll want to temporarily switch to a whisk.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Use a spoon or a spatula, to mix the dry ingredients in with the wet.

Sprinkle the crushed raspberries onto the dough. Gently stir to incorporate.

Stop mixing when you no longer notice a lot of the dry raspberry crumbs/powder. There should be streaks of the fruit throughout the cookie dough.

Wrap dough in a piece of plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm (30-60 minutes) or overnight.

Or chill it while using this cookie rolling hack.

Ready to shape

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Unwrap it & place onto a piece of parchment paper dusted with a little flour.

Loosely cover with the plastic wrap and roll out to ¼ inch thickness. Cut out circles of the dough with a ~2 inch cookie cutter or drinking glass. 

Remove the excess dough from in between the circles. Gather together (without squeezing them into a ball) and cover with plastic wrap.

Add ½ teaspoon of the raspberry chia filling to the center of each circle. Make three pinches to create the triangles. Depending on your preference (and the temperature of the dough), you could do this on the parchment or in your hands. A knife or flexible bench scraper is helpful to lift the circles.

Gently slide this piece of parchment paper onto a sheet pan or cookie sheet.

Re-roll the dough scraps and repeat until you’ve run out of cookie dough. A helpful tip for the last hamantaschen, instead of rolling it flat, roll into a ball and flatten into a circle. If desired, refrigerate 15-20 minutes before baking.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for ~12-15 minutes—can vary depending on the size of your cookies—until lightly golden. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire wrack to cool completely.

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