Gluten Free Hamantashen

Purim is here, which means that it is time to make Hamantashen!  I have some amazing memories of baking hamantashen with both of my parents.  My mother and I would make the dough, and my father would roll it out on a big wooden cutting board that used to belong to my Great Grandma Bertha.  Then my mother and I would cut out the circles, spoon in the filling, and then pinch the corners together.  My mother always double checked my corners before we put them in the oven.  Now I make hamantashen with my children and my husband.  Plus, I even invite friends over to enjoy in the hamantashen making fun!  I hope that I am helping my children create wonderful memories of their own during this joyous holiday.

Last year I made gluten free hamantashen using this recipe.  These hamantashen were soft, a little chewy, and they were so delicious.  However, the recipe contains rice flour, which I do not use in my baking anymore.  So, I had to re-think how I was going to make hamantashen this year.  I found a couple of different grain free hamantashen recipes, but I liked the one from Comfy Belly the best.  

Gluten Free Hamantashen

2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter (cold and cut into pieces)
2 rounded tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Put all of the ingredients into the food processor.  The food processor disperses the butter in the dough mixture.  Place the dough in a piece of plastic wrap and roll it into a log.  Freeze the dough log for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Cover a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Take the dough out of the freezer, and cut the log into about 16 pieces. Take a section of the dough and roll it into a ball.  Then flatten it in between your palms to form a circle.  Place the dough circle on the parchment paper.  Place about a teaspoon of filling* in the middle of the circle.  Fold the dough around the filling into a triangle and pinch the 3 corners together.  The pinching helps keep the hamantashen together when baking.  Repeat for all sections of the dough.

Crack an egg and separate the egg whites from the yolk.  Brush the egg whites onto the edges of the hamantashen.  Bake the hamantashen for about 15 minutes or until they start to brown around the edges.  Let the hamantashen cool, and then they are ready to eat.

*Traditionally, hamantashen are filled with poppyseed filling or a stewed prune filling called lekvar.  My mother always this when we made hamantashen together.  This is her recipe.

Lekvar (prune filling)

2lbs pitted prunes
Water
2 capfuls lemon juice
salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
Cherry pie filling
Cinnamon

Put the prunes in a medium saucepan and then submerge the prunes completely under water.  Add 2 cupfuls of lemon juice, salt, and sugar.  Stir together all of the ingredients together.  Then cook the mixture on a medium heat until it looks syrupy (~15-30 minutes).  Combine the stewed prunes in the food processor with the chopped walnuts.  Then mix the stewed prunes with some of the cherry pie filling and cinnamon.

This year I decided not to use lekvar, because not enough people in my family will eat them.  Instead, I filled some with homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam, some with cherry pie filling, and some filled with nutella (my kids' favorite).

I hope that you enjoy making making these with your family and friends.  Enjoy!

-Cassidy