The classic Israeli style hamantaschen in a vegan version. Still flaky, delicate and wonderful.
Vegan poppy seed hamantaschen
Course: Cakes and cookiesCuisine: Israeli, JewishDifficulty: Medium16
hamantaschen40
minutes12
minutes1
hourThis is a vegan version of the Israeli hamantaschen recipe.
Poppy seeds are available in bulk online, and at most Eastern European and Middle Eastern supermarkets. Alternately, you can buy a few jars of poppy seeds from the spice rack at any chain supermarket.
Note: Poppy seed pastries are very popular in Eastern Europe and Israel. To achieve the rich texture of the cooked poppy seed, the seeds need to be ground. The way to do it is with either an electric coffee grinder or with a blender, preferably a powerful one, such as Vitamix. As you grind the poppy seed they will become darker in color and will resemble almond flour in texture. Grind the poppy seed close to when you’re ready to cook with it, as it becomes rancid pretty quickly, especially when grounded. If you have to grind in advance, keep it in a sealed container in the freezer until you’re ready to use.
INGREDIENTS
- For the filling
½ cup oat milk (to your preferred vegan milk, preferably not sweetened)
¼ cups sugar
2 oz. finely ground poppy seeds (about ½ cup when it’s ground, see note above)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon flour
½ tablespoon coconut oil
Zest of 1 lemon
- For the dough
2½ teaspoons egg replacement powder
2 tablespoons water
1 cups (140 grams, 5 oz.) all purpose flour
⅓ cup (40 grams, 1⅓ oz.) powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
3 oz. (6½ tablespoons) coconut oil
DIRECTIONS
- Prepare the poppy seeds filling: stir together the oat milk, sugar, poppy seeds, vanilla extract and flour in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture has thickened. If the mixture seems too runny, add 1 extra teaspoon of flour. You want the mixture to reseamble thick porridge (it will get thicker once it cools down.) Remove from the heat, stir in the coconut oil and lemon zest and cool completely. You can make the filling a day in advance and keep in the fridge in a sealed container.
- Now make the dough. Mix egg powder into 2 tablespoons water, set aside. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and coconut oil in a food processor. Pulse to create crumbs. Add egg powder mix and pulse just until the dough begins to clump together. Add 1 tablespoon of water if dough does not clump together. Turn the dough out onto a large bowl, knead shortly and gather into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 10 minutes. you can keep in the fridge for longer, but the dough may become too hard to use. In this case, just keep it outside the fridge for a few minutes and continue with the recipe when the dough is soft enough to roll.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Have a 2¾-inch cookie cutter at hand and 2 more large pieces of parchment paper.
- Put dough on the on a parchment paper, top with another paper and roll with a rolling pin to a rectangle (about ⅛” thin). Remove the top parchment paper. Use the cookie cutter to cut out circles of dough. Reroll the dough as needed.
- Mount filling in the center with a teaspoon. Lift and pinch the edges of each circle in three corners spaced evenly apart, to create a triangle. Arrange on a baking sheet, spacing hamantaschen an inch apart. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.
- Chil hamantaschen in the fridge for 30 minutes
- Oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until pastries are barely golden on the edges. Cool completely on wire racks. If desired, dust with powdered sugar. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
