Chocolate Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen are a fairly ubiquitous offering in the many bakeries and delis in New York, and my first experience was with a raspberry jam-filled pastry the size of my hand on the Upper West Side. More traditional fillings might include sweetened ground poppy seeds, cream cheese, fruit compotes or dried fruit and nut mixtures, but there's almost never anything wrong with chocolate. The doughs one might use for hamantaschen are equally as various, from a tender shortcrust pastry, to a yeast or biscuit dough. What is always consistent, however, is the unique conical shape, always parted just enough to reveal a bit of what's inside.

This recipe, from Alice Medrich's Chocolate Holidays produces something more like a cookie than a pastry, golden bite-sized delights. It's a good idea to make the dough the night before and give it a chance to come together in the refrigerator for several hours. The same thing can be done with the filling.

One tip that I learned only after making these, be sure to really pinch the sides together so the cookie will hold its shape and not split open. Pinching helps to keep the almost flourless filling in place, as well. And speaking of the filling, I had far more of it than cookie rounds on which to spread it. So if you're in need of about half a chocolate filling recipe, you'll be in luck with these leftovers.

Chocolate Hamantaschen

Filling

1 stick butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cold eggs

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler, stirring frequently. Remove the top of the double boiler and add the sugar, vanilla extract and salt and continue stirring. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring to incorporate each completely before adding the next. Finally, stir in the flour and beat with a wooden spoon by hand for about a minute. The filling will turn glossy and begin to come away from the bowl. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate until needed.

Cookie Dough

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter, softened but not squishy

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix the first three ingredients with a whisk and set aside. In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for about 3 - 4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla, and then, on low speed, beat in the flour until just incorporated. Form the dough into two bricks, warp with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

Oven preheated to 350, remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to warm until it becomes supple enough to roll out. Roll each brick individually to a thickness of about 1/8". It is easiest to do this between two sheets of wax paper. You may want to turn the dough over a couple of times, keeping it between the two sheets, to ensure that no deep creases form.

Cut cookies out using a 3" round cutter and transfer cookie rounds to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Put a leveled teaspoon of filling in the center of each cookie round, then bring 3 sides of each round up to partially cover the filling. Pinch the sides together. Cookies should be spaced about 1/2" apart on the sheet.

Bake for a total of 22-24 minutes, rotating the pans half-way through baking. Allow to cool completely on racks.

UPDATE: evidently one reader found 1/8" to be too thin to hold in the filling. It worked fine for me, but this reader, before accusing me of disgracing the hamantaschen world (!!) suggests that you tend toward 1/2" to be on the safe side. I say, use your best judgment when rolling the dough out. If the sides seem too thin to hold the filling in, make them thicker.

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Since these cookies make a perfect treat for the holidays, I'm sending this in to Susan of Food Blogga for Eat Christmas Cookies: Season Two. She's posting the recipes as she receives them, so if you need more ideas for your holiday cookie tray, you can find the round-up here.