Red Velvet Hamantaschen for Purim! Chocolately cookies with cream cheese filling and drizzled chocolate. Heck yeah.
Can you believe it’s Purim already?? Time sure does fly!
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that SXSW and Purim are around the same time. For those not familiar, SXSW is a conference/film festival/ music festival/ three week party that takes over Austin and makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and stay home, but instead I will persevere and drink free booze and dance to bands I’ve never heard of and collect lots of swag because that’s the American way! Just pray that I make it through St. Patrick’s Day.
Purim, on the other hand, is where Queen Esther saves the Jews from annihilation (I know. Again.) and we rejoice by having kick ass parties, dressing up in costume, and getting drunk. See the resemblance? The main Purim treat is Hamantaschen. These shortbread-esque cookies are normally filled with poppy seed, prune or jam. But since when do I follow the rules?
In the past I’ve come up with tasty concoctions like Neapolitan Hamantaschen and I’ve got a few winners for y’all this year. First up? Red Velvet. Chocolately cookies with cream cheese filling and drizzled chocolate. Heck yeah.
Red Velvet Hamantaschen
Ingredients
Cookies
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup aka 4 oz), room temperature
- 1 egg whisked plus 1 for egg wash
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (use 1 teaspoon for pouffier softer cookies)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons red food coloring
Filling
- 6 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 1 semi sweet chocolate baking bar
Instructions
- In a large bowl with a stand or hand mixer, blend butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add egg, orange juice and vanilla and mix to combine. Then add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and red food coloring and combine until mixed and you have a uniform color. Dough should be slightly sticky.
- Form a ball and chill overnight in the refrigerator.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- To make the filling, cream together cream cheese and vanilla with a hand mixer add in powdered sugar until very thick and not sticky (between 2-2 1/2 cups depending on humidity).
- Roll dough out to about 1/4 - 1/8 inch think and cut into circles with a 3 or 3 1/2-inch cookie cutter or wine glass.
- Add 1 teaspoon of filling to the center of each circle and fold three sides in overlapping the sides to secure. Place hamantaschen on a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze for 30 minutes to prevent spreading.
- Wash with egg wash and bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly brown on the bottom. Cool on a cooling rack.
- To make drizzle, melt chocolate in a double boiler and drizzle over cookies with a spoon. Enjoy!
Notes
what a great idea for hamentaschen! i love red velvet!
Thanks!
These look amazing, Amy! I love the colours and the chocolate drizzled over adds that extra special touch 🙂
Thanks, Jessica!
These did not turn out! Before I made them, I was wondering what was going to hold the filling together? It’s just cream cheese and sugar. Just as I suspected, the filling melted and ran out all over the pan. I added an egg to filling mixture….it helped a little but I wouldn’t make them again.
I’m so sorry you had an issue! I’ve tested this recipe three times and have a similar recipe with mint cream cheese filling and have never had a leaking issue. Maybe you needed more sugar? It got pretty thick with all that sugar in there which I think helped it.
OMG! I have never even heard of fun flavored hamantachen but these look amazing!!! My boyfriend would LOVE them!
Aw thanks!! They are pretty darn tasty!!
After reading the other reviewer, I tested out a few cookies before rolling out the entire batch. I had a similar issue with the filling. I put about 2-3 cups powdered sugar and kept adding bc was still sticky. I probably had a little over 3 cups but it melted over the pan 🙁 I ended up baking the dough and making linzer tarts with the dough with little hearts cut in the middle and filled in filling after the cookies were done. Delicious! It was a red velvet linzer tart. Also made some that were very “oreo” like as well as just plain cookies with the icing on top and I put the little heart that was cut out from the linzer tart on top of the icing. Really was good.
Glad they tasted great and sorry you had issues! I’ve made these cookies 4 times now and haven’t had an issues, so I’m thinking it must be an oven or humidity thing. Glad you figured it out!!
I’m trying to collect the rounds off my counter after rolling out the red velvet hamantaschen dough. It’s a horrid sticky red mess. What tips do you have for the rolling pin and surface?
Hi Felicia,
Oh no! I would use more flour next time so it doesn’t stick. I just use soap to clean any residual stains after!
Absolutely delicious! Yes, the cream cheese filing did bubble out some, but what I will do next time is to put just a very small amount and then refill it when the hamantaschen cookies cool down. I tried to bake them without any filling, but they flattened out. So problem solved with a bit of filling and then using piping fill it to the brim! I refilled the ones that bubbled out and they looked perfect! I prefer my filling with less powdered sugar, so it actually works perfect that way for me. Super approved and I am making them to ship to all the nephews and nieces the year
Glad you enjoyed! The amount of sugar helps make the filling thick, so using less sugar would make a difference.
These taste really good but like others have said the filling melts or deflates after coming out of the oven. Luckily there was plenty of extra cream cheese frosting leftover so I just added more filling after they cooled. Very cakey.
Glad you liked them! Did you freeze before baking? That usually prevents leaking. Also make sure the filling has enough sugar in it to make it thick.