Mint Chocolate Hamantaschen for Purim. There is more out there than poppy seed and prune!
Last week I shared my love for unconventional hamantaschen and my fear for SXSW mayhem. A lot of emotions going on there. This week? We are now just days away from Purim (Check out the video below of me making Hamantaschen on the local news! Boo yeah!) and still in the early days of SXSW. So far I’ve attended bar crawls, concerts, a blogging conference, and collected more koozies, bandanas, and free tacos and beer than a girl could possibly need. What is it about free koozies that makes me need ALL THE KOOZIES??? As if I don’t have 100 at home already. And it’s only Tuesday! Oy vey.
I think we can mostly agree that chocolate > not chocolate. And chocolate and cream cheese and mint? Well that’s downright heavenly. WWEstherDo? Eat the crap out of these hamantaschen. Fact. I filled the chocolate cookies with a creamy mint center. And then drizzled them in MORE chocolate. Because I can.
On Purim you are supposed to dress up, and get drunk, and celebrate life’s little miracles. What could be more of a miracle than these Mint Chocolate Hamantaschen? Besides the saving of the Jewish people of course.
Mint Chocolate Hamantaschen
Ingredients
- For hamantaschen:
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup aka 4 oz), room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg plus 1 for egg wash
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (use 1 tsp if you want a pouffier/softer cookie)
- For filling:
- 6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon mint extract
- Green food coloring if desired
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
Instructions
- In a large bowl, with a stand or hand mixer, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Then add vanilla, egg and orange juice and combine. Then add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and mix just until combined. Dough should be slightly sticky.
- Cover in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- To make the filling, cream together cream cheese and mint extract (with some green food coloring if desired) with a hand mixer add in powdered sugar until very thick and not sticky (between 2- 2 1/2 cups depending on humidity).
- Roll out the dough to about 1/4 - 1/8 inch and cut into circles using a 3 or 3 1/2-inch cookie cutter (a wine glass also works well!)
- Add a heaping teaspoon of the filling to the center of each hamantaschen. Fold in three corners to form a triangle and overlap the edges to seal. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze 30 minutes to prevent spreading.
- Wash with remaining egg wash and bake for 12-15 minutes until just browned on the edges. Cool, and if desired drizzle with chocolate melted in a double boiler or microwave.
Notes
Girl, jew a natural on the TV! Great job!!
Aw thank Jew very much!
these look great! they also double for st. patrick’s day!
Thanks!
Okay, I think you just took hamantaschen to a place that might make some bubbes bristle, but deep down they’re trembling with excitement. Simply, amazing.,Amy.
Aw thanks!
Thank you for the post.
Can you write the amounts of the ingredients in grams please? I dont know how much a butter block or finger is for example…
Thanks
You can google any conversions you need!
These look great – I can’t wait to try them! What kind of cocoa powder….unsweetened, sweetened, dutch process?
Unsweetened!
What did I do wrong? As the cookies cooled the filling sank into itself.
Oh no! Sounds like you either put too much filling in the cookies or the filling didn’t have enough powdered sugar?
Wondering about storing these being they have cream cheese for filling. Do you think they could be included with a mix of several kinds of cookies to be left out.
I would keep them refrigerated if leaving out more than 2 hours.