Hanukkah Hamantaschen


Hanukkah Hamantaschen
For most families, these tri-cornered cookies are baked up in the spring along with the costumes and carnivals that help us celebrate Purim. But in my family, it's not time to exchange Hannukah gifts until the hamantaschen are on the table. You can fill these with any type of homemade jam you'd like, from cherry to blackberry, even currant. In our house, though, Hanukkah Hamantaschen are made the traditional way, with a sweet apricot filling.

– Stacy Schultz, Senior Editor


Ingredients

Dough:

1½ cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
6 jumbo eggs
½ cup orange juice
10 2/3 cup flour, separated

Filling:
1 16-oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
1 6-oz. bag dried apricots, chopped
1 heaping cup raisins
1 heaping cup chopped pecans
26 oz. apricot preserves
 
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

• Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Dough:

• Combine vegetable oil and sugar in a bowl and beat well.

• Add in eggs, one at a time, and beat well until combined.

• Add juice and 9 2/3 cups flour.

Filling:

• Mix all filling ingredients in a large bowl.

• Flour board with remaining cup of flour.

• Roll dough on floured board and cut in 3½-inch circles.

• Scoop filling into the middle of each round and pinch three sides together until it forms a triangle.

• Flatten the extra dough after pitching.

• Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture over each cookie.

• Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the bottoms are light brown.