Bakery Style Hamantashen Dough

By mitzzy

Hamantaschen begins here.This dough, made with shortening and butter, yields a light, cookie-like pastry which is similar to the hamantaschen you might expect to find in a commercial bakery. If you require a dairy free dough, simply use all shortening or non-dairy margarine (instead of butter and shortening). You can also use this dough to make cookie triangles - "mock" hamantaschens - for children who prefer unfilled cookies. Brush with egg wash and dust with plain sugar or colored sprinkles. If you love the oil-based dough, I am still willing to bet once you make this dough, you might never return to the oil-based one. This is: that good!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter or unsalted margarine
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup orange juice or milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 cups (approximately) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• egg wash
• Filling(s)
• Chocolate hazelnut paste,
• Various dried fruit fillings (on BB or in March Goldman's book) including cherries, apricots, prune, poppy
• Sugar (regular or coarse) for dusting (optional)
• Egg Wash

Preparation

Step 1

Cream the shortening and butter with the sugar. Add eggs and blend until smooth. (If mixture is hard to blend or seems curdled, add a bit of the flour to bind it).

Stir in orange juice or milk and vanilla. Fold in flour, salt, and baking powder and mix to make a firm but soft dough. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a smooth mass. Cover and let rest ten minutes. Divide dough into two or three flattened disks. Work with one portion at a time. Wrapped in plastic, dough can be refrigerated for 2-3 days. If refrigerating, allow dough to warm up before rolling out. For frozen pastries, bake without defrosting.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll out dough on lightly floured board to a thickness of 1/8th inch. Use a 3 inch cookie cutter and cut into rounds. Brush rounds with egg wash. Fill with a generous teaspoon full of desired filling. Draw three sides together into center. Grasp perimeters of circle with your first, second and third fingers and pull inward. You should now have a three-cornered or triangular pastry. Essentially, fold two sides towards the center to form a triangle top. Fold up the remaining dough towards the center to meet the other edges of the touch. Brush pastries with egg wash. If desired, sprinkle with regular or coarse sugar and bake until golden brown, about 18-25 minutes.

Recipe doubles well.
About 4-6 dozen pastries.