Guess what’s coming this week? That’s right, it’s that Purim time of the year again! And that means hamantaschen, everyone’s favorite triangular-shaped cookie! (If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, click here and all will be made clear).

This year I’m doing a little riff on tradition and filling them with a luscious chocolate pudding that stays sort of creamy even when baked! It’s so, so good!

Hamantaschen are an annual treat I always look forward to but too often the ones you find in the bakeries and delis that carry them consist of a rather bland, leaden pastry. Not these! The pastry for these cookies is divine! Flaky and flavorful with an amazing mouth feel—every bite crumbles in your mouth in a lovely, buttery, slightly lemony way!

And while the dough is just the teensiest bit more persnickety to work with than my traditional hamantaschen dough and requires a bit more chilling, I felt the results far outweighed the extra time and efforts!

So much fun to make…

And eat!

Happy Purim!

Not feeling the chocolate pudding vibe? How about these traditional jam filled ones, this Raspberry Chocolate version, Brownie-filled Hamataschen, Vanilla-Bean Cheesecake or, Chocolate Peanut Butter kind?

Chocolate Pudding Hamantaschen

Makes about 30 cookies

You will need a food processor for this.

Prep Time for dough: 10 minutes, plus at least 1 hour to chill and up to 24; Prep Time for Filling: 15 minutes, plus at least 30 minutes chilling time; Assembly time for cookies: 20 minutes; Bake Time: 13-18 minutes

Ingredients

For the dough

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 large egg yolks
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature, cut into small pieces
The zest of 1 lemon
2 ¼ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 large egg, beaten, for the glaze

For the filling

3 large egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup milk
½ vanilla bean, cut lengthwise (if you don’t have sub in 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract)
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

The Recipe

1. To make the dough: Place the confectioners sugar and egg yolks in the bowl of the food processor and blend them together. Add the butter and lemon and blend again, scraping down the bowl. Slowly add the flour and salt and pulse until a dough ball forms. Divide it in two, flatten each into a disk and wrap both tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.

2. To make the filling: In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and cocoa until the mixture is smooth.

3. Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and scrape the vanilla bean seeds into it, adding the pod as well. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then remove from the heat and remover and discard the vanilla bean pod. Whisking constantly, pour about ⅓ of the milk into the egg mixture and then pour the entire egg mixture back into the saucepan. Place the pan over low heat and continue to whisk constantly until it simmers and thickens into a pudding-like consistency.

4. Remove from the heat, add the chopped chocolate and whisk until the chocolate has fully melted and the mixture is smooth. Pour into a bowl, press a piece of plastic wrap directly against the pudding surface (to prevent a skin from forming) and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, until the mixture is completely cold. You can definitely do this a day in advance.

5. When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350ºF and line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

6. Remove the dough from the fridge and let it soften until you can work with it. If you’ve made this the day before and the dough is very hard, take it out about 20 minutes before you are ready to begin. Sprinkle a little flour on a pastry board or clean counter as well as your rolling pin and roll out one dough half until the dough is about ¼ inch thick. This dough is a little sticky so as you roll, loosen it from the board and sprinkle a little flour underneath it to keep it from sticking. Flour a 3-inch round cookie cutter or the rim of a wide-mouthed glass to cut out as many circles as possible, re-flouring the glass or cutter as needed and carefully transfer the circles to the prepared baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, re-roll out the dough and cut as many circles out as possible. Place the baking sheet in the fridge to keep the dough from getting too warm while you roll out the other half of dough.

7. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and place the second sheet in to keep cool. Place a heaping teaspoon of the chocolate filling in the center of each circle and press up the sides to form triangles, pinching the edges well to seal and spacing cookies about 1-inch apart. If the dough feels too firm to maneuver, let it stand for a few minutes to soften up. Brush the tops with the beaten egg.

8. Bake the first sheet until cookies are golden brown, rotating the sheet at the halfway mark, 15-17 minutes. Meanwhile, fill and assemble second tray and pop into the oven after the first sheet comes out. Cool cookies on the tray on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer to rack to finish cooling completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from King Solomon’s Table by Joan Nathan via Schmaltz by Shmil Holland. I followed this recipe pretty closely but made some without the chocolate chips and that’s what I would do in the future. We all liked the smooth filling better but feel free to add some chocolate chips to the pudding after you’ve refrigerated it. Also, the original recipe has you roll out the dough between parchment paper—I didn’t feel it was necessary—always looking for ways to use less paper!