Recipe: Hamantaschen, Nut-Free, Gluten-Free, Adapted from The Nosher

Oh YES!

I believe I have improved upon the last Hamantaschen recipe (the one using Betty Crocker AP Gluten-Free Flour). Although it has the exact right orange taste and lovely buttery flavor, that recipe also has a dry, crumbly, almost dusty texture. Not ideal. But with GF baking that can be par for the course.

So, yes that recipe works, and it's yum, I was thinking (ahem: dreaming) that a different gluten-free, nut-free flour base would be worth trying.

I’ve been making a bunch of different baked goods with Namaste Foods Perfect Flour and came across this recipe from The Nosher that looked like it might be a perfect candidate to try a different Hamantaschen recipe. (Especially because it only uses 1 1/3 cup flour. GF flour can be really expensive and a recipe that uses an entire small box of GF flour and is *not* great, is such a sad, expensive waste.) 

And thus, this deliciousness was born! 

Even the exploded ones are DELISH

The flavor of the dough is that exact right organgey and buttery flavor from my childhood but the texture is the big difference here: not a crumby, dry, dusty cookie but a luscious buttery cookie that’s soft and toothsome and all loveliness.

Also, I left this dough in the fridge overnight (because... life) and it worked like a dream. (NB: the Betty Crocker GF flour dough did not like being refrigerated overnight, not at all).

Here's the purported original "Betty Crocker" recipe upon which The Nosher's recipe was based.

And here's a tray of apricot Hamantaschen ready for noshing!

***

Recipe: Hamantaschen, Nut-Free, Gluten-Free
Adapted from My Jewish Learning, The Nosher

Ingredients
½ cup butter 
¾ cup granulated white sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 1/3 cups Namaste all-purpose gluten-free, nut-free flour 
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Directions
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk, vanilla and orange zest until mixed thoroughly.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry mixture to wet mixture until incorporated.

(NB: If the dough is too soft, increase flour amount by 1/4 cups until firm. Also note, once I needed to do this, another time I did not. Go figure.)

Chill dough for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours (or longer, my most recent batch has been in the fridge three days, still a dream dough.)

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Dust a surface with extra flour to keep from sticking and roll the dough to about ¼ inch thick.

Using a round cookie cutter (or anything round really, a glass, a small round Tupperware container) cut out rounds and place onto the lined cookie sheet. 

Fill each round with your favorite filling, and pinch corners together tightly.

Once formed, place the lined cookie sheet with the cookies into the fridge for 10-20 minutes. Repinch once chilled if they look a little unhinged.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, until filling is bubbling and the cookie is lightly browned. Cool and NOSH!