Lemon Lavender Hamantaschen! Filled with lemon curd and drizzled with lavender white chocolate! Esther would totally approve.
Greetings from Connecticut! I’m spending a few days with the fam resting my liver before SXSW! (Yes, it’s true, I’m not a real Texan. I’m a total Yankee.) Though I make no promises, there may be a game or two of boozy maj jong with Bubbe (that girl sure knows how to party).
Speaking of party, Purim falls smack in the middle of SXSW this year (coincidence? I think not). Since Purim is arguably the most fun of all Jewish holidays (though I’m team Passover myself), this makes sense. Let’s example the facts: costumes encouraged, alcoholic beverages even more encouraged, the world is your carnival. And Purim is pretty much the same! (LOL)
Last week I went for savory Shakshuka Hamantaschen, but I couldn’t let the season pass without a sweet one for you. Lemon is one of my favorite dessert flavors ever, combined with lavender and white chocolate and these may be my favorite variety yet! (Don’t tell the others.)
You can buy dried lavender in the bulk aisle by teas, or on trusty Amazon too!
I could eat the whole bowl of this lemon curd. No joke.
Lemon and lavender just go together like matzo balls and soup. Or horseradish and everything. 
I initially dyed my white chocolate lavender drizzle purple, but it got kind of gray-ish, so you do what you like!
Nom nom nom. 
Lemon Lavender Hamantaschen
Ingredients
- For hamantaschen dough:
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup aka 4 oz), room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg plus 1 for egg wash
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1-2 tablespoons chopped lavender buds (I did 2 for more lavender flavor but up to you!
- 2 cups flour sifted
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (use 1 tsp if you want a pouffier/softer cookie)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- For lemon curd filling: adapted from Epicurious; you can use pre-made too
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 stick 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- For drizzle:
- 8 oz white chocolate
- 2 teaspoons lavender buds chopped
- Purple food coloring optional
Instructions
- First, make the dough. In a large bowl with a stand or hand mixer, blend butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. You can do it by hand too if you like. Then add vanilla, 1 egg and lemon juice and zest and combine. Then add lavender, flour, baking powder and salt and mix just until combined. Dough should be slightly sticky.
- Form dough into a large ball, flatten slightly, wrap with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
- Then, make the lemon curd!
- Whisk together lemon juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Over low heat, stir in butter a little at a time, whisking often, for about 5 minutes or until curd is thick enough to coat the whisk. Careful not to turn the heat too high or the eggs may cook. If you have some chunks in your curd, strain through a fine mesh strainer.
- Transfer lemon curd to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour or up to 1 week.
- When you are ready to make your hamantaschen, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it thin, about ¼ - ⅛ inch thick. Use a 3 or 3 1/2-inch circle cookie cutter to cut circles in the dough. The top of a wine glass works too! Roll out the scraps and recut into circles.
- Then take a teaspoon of the curd and put it in the center of each circle. Resist the urge to over-fill.
- Fold two sides together overlapping at the bottom, and then fold the top down to make a triangle. Or pinch together sides.
- Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze for 30 minutes to prevent spreading.
- Wash with egg wash. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden on the bottoms of cookies.
- Cool on a cooling rack.
- While your cookies are cooling, melt white chocolate and lavender buds in a double boiler or in a microwave in 30 second increments until melted. Dye if desired, and drizzle over cooked cookies and eat!!
Notes
I tried your recipe – I have never made uglier Hamantaschen. They spread out and merged into one big thing. I don’t know what I did wrong.
My husband used that as an excuse to eat 3 because he couldn’t figure out where one ended and the other began. He really loved the taste of the dough. This was the first time I made lemon curd and it was really easy. I am going to made it again but just make thumb cookies and fill it in afterwards. I have so much lemon curd left over.
Thanks for the recipe.
Suzy
Hi Suzy,
Sorry you had trouble! Maybe you overfilled them? Did you refrigerate/freeze before baking? That prevents spreading too.
Looks amazing! Hamantashen is possibly the world’s greatest cookie. Just stumbled across your blog today, nice! Greetings from Copenhagen, Denmark where these goyishe kops know a thing about pastry, but a real hammantashen would win, hands down!
Aw thank you so much! Thanks for reading!! 🙂
love this!
Thanks!
You’d have to eat these with pinkies out, I think. Once again, my pet unicorn approves.
Haha thank you and love it!! I need a pet unicorn.
never thought to combine lemon and lavender. Going to try these ?thank you so much ?????
Thank you! It’s one of my favorite flavor combinations ever!
So I made these and used trader Joe’s lemon curd which bubbled up and spread like crazy! I’m going to remake these again but make my own lemon curd . I have a question. How do you think the curd would turn out if I added a bit of heavy cream to it? I like more creamy type fillings . Please advise!
Oh no! Sorry you had trouble. Did you freeze the cookies before baking? I always do that and have no trouble with spreading. I would think the cream would make it spread more.
The dough didn’t spread , just the curd it spilled over the sides of the cookie and I used a teaspoon or less . I just thought about adding the cream to the curd filling to make it creamy, not the dough. What would you suggest to make the curd more creamy?
Yes, freezing helps with the filling not spreading too. I think adding cream to the curd would keep making it spread.
2nd time was the charm they came out amazing!! Thanks for the recipe!!!
Awesome! Enjoy.
I made these yesterday and they are delicious! I used store-bought lemon curd and didn’t do the drizzle. The dough was very easy to make. I made it the day before baking and it sat overnight in the fridge. Once I took it out, it was easy to work with. I didn’t freeze them before baking, and thankfully they didn’t spread in the oven.
Next time, I will try making my own lemon curd. The one I bought from the store is pretty runny and even after baking and cooling, it’s still pretty messy. It didn’t really “set” at all. But, still tasty and definitely a cookie I will make many times!
Glad you liked them, Lacey! The lemon curd is easier than it sounds. And you can make it up to a few days ahead of time too. I like to eat it with a spoon!
Should I refrigerate these cookies since they have lemon curd filling? Thanks for the beautiful recipe!
Yes, if you are going to leave them out longer than a day I would refrigerate them. You can stick them in the oven for a few second before eating or bring them to room temp before eating. Enjoy!