Hamantaschen

I love these cookies! They don't take a long time to make or to bake, and they're not nearly as fiddly as many cookies are...but they do take time. They're cookies, after all. I've figured out a few time-saving tips, but really...THEY'RE COOKIES!! Take your time. Have your kids help. Have fun telling the Purim story, even if you're not Jewish! Purim starts tonight, so make some today if you've got the time :-)

Now don't scream when you see my recipe! I've developed this one over many years, but it all started with my girlfriend Monica, who introduced me to cream cheese dough in college! Most traditional hamantaschen recipes use a modified pie dough, but this is just a whole lot better.

Hamantaschen

1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c butter (1 stick)
1/2 c cream cheese (4 oz)
1/2 c sugar
1 t baking powder
2 c flour
Preserves (I used lemon curd this year!)

Place the sour cream, butter, and cream cheese in a large bowl. They should all be at room temperature, or slightly warmer. Mix them thoroughly and whip in the sugar. Stir in the baking powder and the flour. Refrigerate the dough until firm. Roll out the dough between two sheets of waxed paper to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out with circle cutter or with drinking glass. Place the circles on parchment paper on baking sheets. Spoon a small amount of preserves in the center of each. Pinch the dough to make three corners, leaving the center unsealed. Bake approximately 18 minutes at 350. Makes about 24 cookies.

Another great filling is a combination of ginger preserves and peach preserves mixed together! You can experiment with jam fillings to your heart's content. Let each kid choose their own...it's so much fun to make these!

If you really need to do these in a hurry, make the dough ahead of time and wrap it in plastic wrap in the fridge. Using the waxed paper and the parchment paper already cuts the clean-up time. You can have the kids help you do them assembly-line style. They won't know that they're not having fun :-)