These delicious hamantaschen are dairy free and the recipe is easier to make than you might think; no chilling required. The perfect cookie for Purim and beyond, hamantashen are magical shortbread pockets filled with the yummiest easy fillings.
In case you’re new to this incredible cookie, a hamantash (plural, it’s hamantashen or hamantaschen) is a triangular filled-pocket cookie, usually associated with the Jewish holiday of Purim. The cookie itself is reminiscent of a buttery shortbread, soft in the center and cookie-like on the outside, with a jelly or chocolate filling. A classic hamantash is often filled with apricot butter, prune butter (a.k.a., lekvar), chocolate spread, poppy seeds, halva, date spread, strawberry or raspberry jam, and more modern interactions are filled with Nutella (or in our case, dairy free Nocciolata), chocolate chip cookie dough, or even brownie batter!
My mom has been baking the most incredible homemade hamantaschen since I was a little kid, and I will always love the pillowy soft triangle-shaped cookies we eat each year on Purim. Of course, I also absolutely love the tradition of it all and I’m a big fan of keeping transitions alive for our girls, especially because we live so far from family.
Not to mention the fact that a good hamantaschen is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. My mom’s legendary hamantaschen recipe is actually on this blog – I shared it way back when in 2015 and I’ve sent it to countless friends, family, and readers over the years. If dairy isn’t a concern, you should 100% go make that recipe ASAP. It’s hands-down the best version I’ve tried and will make all of your hamantaschen dreams come true.
As for my dairy free ventures, I’ve made variations of my mom’s hamantaschen over the years, especially in more recent years as a dairy free cookie since our oldest daughter can’t have any milk protein, but taking away all of that rich dairy goodness in the original recipe never quite worked the way I wanted it to. I am a baking perfectionist.
Easy and Delicious Dairy Free Hamantaschen
This year, I set out to find a dairy free hamantaschen recipe that was plain old delicious all on it’s own, no substitutions required.
To make these dairy free cookies, I pulled in a few favorite tricks that my mom uses for her delicious hamantaschen, while working with a homemade dairy free base, and goodness was the end result ever yummy. Not to mention, this recipe for dairy free hamantaschen is easy; no chilling required. The steps are straight forward and you likely have all of the ingredients in your kitchen right this very second.
The dough to these hamantashen is soft and delicate on the inside, cookie-like on the outside, subtly sweet (and the perfect pairing to all of the sweet fillings you’ll put in the center of your cookie).
These no fuss dairy free hamantaschen are also pretty customizable. You can bake them up with classic fillings like strawberry, raspberry or apricot jam, prune butter (a.k.a., lekvar) or apricot butter, halva, date spread, or go wild and use chocolate spread (This kosher chocolate spread is our favorite because it’s dairy free and SO good!), Nutella (or dairy free Nocciolata … I swear it tastes JUST like Nutella!), chocolate chip cookie dough, or even brownie batter for the filling!
We filled our dairy free hamantaschen with strawberry jam, pear preserves, and kosher chocolate spread. (The strawberry was my favorite for sure! It reminds me of strawberry shortcake, in cookie form.)
How to Make Our Favorite Dairy Free Hamantaschen
Servings: about 20 – 22 hamantashen
What You’ll Need:
Rolling Pin
3” Biscuit Cutter
2 Cookie Sheets
Parchment Paper
Zester (optional)
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
½ tsp nutmeg
Jam, chocolate spread, etc. (for the filling)
Sugar (for sprinkling on top)
1-5 tsp water (works as the glue to hold the edges of the dough together)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Take out your fillings and have them ready to work with.
Cream/blend together sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla and orange zest (optional) in a stand mixer or mixing bowl until well incorporated. Slowly add flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Mix together. The dough will be crumbly. That’s good. Once everything is incorporated, use your hands to smooth out and squeeze the dough to combine it. Just knead the dough until smooth and slightly tacky to the touch; a.k.a., try not to overwork the dough.
NOTE: To keep your dough from drying while you work, wet a kitchen towel and wring out the excess water so that it’s damp and use that damp towel to keep your dough covered. As you’re cutting out circles, you can also use the damp towel to cover the circles and the remaining dough.
Sprinkle flour on a clean counter and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough on that floured surface to about 1/8 to 1/4 thickness. (If your rolled out dough is too thick, the cookie circles will be difficult to shape and will open up on baking; too thin and they will rip when shaping or filling. I prefer a thicker, more doughy texture to our cookies, so I tend to keep the dough thickness closer to 1/4 inch.)
Cut out circles using a biscuit cutter*, cookie cutter or the rim of a large glass cup or mason jar, cutting as many as you can from the dough. Gather the scraps and roll them out again to the same thickness and cut circles from that dough. Repeat the process until you’ve cut as many circles as you can from the dough.
Fill the center of each circle with desired filling (about a 1/2 teaspoon – don’t overfill or you’ll run the risk of your hamantaschen opening and the filling spilling out during baking). Next, run a small amount of water along the entire edge of the circle with your fingertip. (I like to keep a small bowl of water at my workspace to make this easy. The water just acts as a glue to help the edges stay together.) Bring two sides up to form a corner and pinch, and then do the same to the other two corners. (You can see this in action here.)
As you make your hamantaschen, place them on your parchment-lined cookie sheet. You can put a fair amount of hamantaschen on each baking sheet (probably 10 – 12 per sheet), as they don’t need to be very spaced out since they shouldn’t expand much during baking. Once each cookie sheet is full, sprinkle a pinch of granulated sugar over the tops of the cookies before baking. (Optional.)
Bake one sheet at a time at 350 for 8 to 12 minutes depending on how soft or crispy you want them. Bake one sheet as you assemble the next batch. I like them super soft so I take them out at about 9-10 minutes. These will only brown lightly because they have no butter in them, but have no fear: they will magically taste buttery and delicious all the same. 😍
Cool the hamantaschen on a wire rack. Store them in an airtight container.
*I found that the largest size from the Hearth & Hand with Magnolia 3-pack Biscuit Cutter set from Target worked perfectly! Any roughly 3” circle cookie cutter (or even the rim of a wide mouth mason jar) will work.
Scroll down for a printable dairy free hamantaschen recipe.
These delicious hamantaschen are dairy free and easier to make than you might think; no chilling required. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Take out your fillings and have them ready to work with. *I found that the largest size from the Hearth & Hand with Magnolia 3-pack Biscuit Cutter set from Target worked perfectly! Any roughly 3” circle cookie cutter (or even the rim of a wide mouth mason jar) will work.
Easy and Delicious Dairy Free Hamantaschen
Ingredients
Instructions
Cream/blend together sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla and orange zest (optional) in a stand mixer or mixing bowl until well incorporated. Slowly add flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Mix together. The dough will be crumbly. That’s good. Once everything is incorporated, use your hands to smooth out and squeeze the dough to combine it. Just knead the dough until smooth and slightly tacky to the touch; a.k.a., try not to overwork the dough.
NOTE: To keep your dough from drying while you work, wet a kitchen towel and wring out the excess water so that it’s damp and use that damp towel to keep your dough covered. As you’re cutting out circles, you can also use the damp towel to cover the circles and the remaining dough.
Sprinkle flour on a clean counter and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough on that floured surface to about 1/8 to 1/4 thickness. (If your rolled out dough is too thick, the cookie circles will be difficult to shape and will open up on baking; too thin and they will rip when shaping or filling. I prefer a thicker, more doughy texture to our cookies, so I tend to keep the dough thickness closer to 1/4 inch.)
Cut out circles using a biscuit cutter*, cookie cutter or the rim of a large glass cup or mason jar, cutting as many as you can from the dough. Gather the scraps and roll them out again to the same thickness and cut circles from that dough. Repeat the process until you've cut as many circles as you can from the dough.
Fill the center of each circle with desired filling (about a 1/2 teaspoon - don’t overfill or you’ll run the risk of your hamantaschen opening and the filling spilling out during baking). Next, run a small amount of water along the entire edge of the circle with your fingertip. (I like to keep a small bowl of water at my workspace to make this easy. The water just acts as a glue to help the edges stay together.) Bring two sides up to form a corner and pinch, and then do the same to the other two corners. (You can see this in action here.)
As you make your hamantaschen, place them on your parchment-lined cookie sheet. You can put a fair amount of hamantaschen on each baking sheet (probably 10 - 12 per sheet), as they don't need to be very spaced out since they shouldn't expand much during baking. Once each cookie sheet is full, sprinkle a pinch of granulated sugar over the tops of the cookies before baking. (Optional.)
Bake one sheet at a time at 350 for 8 to 12 minutes depending on how soft or crispy you want them. Bake one sheet as you assemble the next batch. I like them super soft so I take them out at about 9-10 minutes. These will only brown lightly because they have no butter in them, but have no fear: they will magically taste buttery and delicious all the same. 😍
Cool the hamantaschen on a wire rack. Store them in an airtight container.Notes
So there you have it: the yummiest, customizable dairy free hamantashen; perfect for Purim and beyond!
SHOP THE DAIRY FREE HAMANTASCHEN POST | CLICK LEFT & RIGHT ARROWS TO EXPLORE
If you make your own homemade hamantaschen, tag me on social media (@glitterinclexi) so I can live vicariously through all of your delicious creations! Send those pictures my way!!
Join the Fun
Older Post
