We’re not Jewish, we just enjoy holiday-specific foods.

I’ve never made hamantashen before and only eaten them a few times. But earlier in the week I started thinking about it and became fixated, plus it seemed like a good way to use up some prunes we have in the pantry. At first I was going to make a buttery cookie, because, butter. But then I thought about it and figured I should make it dairy-free so C could try them. Then I decided to just go all the way and make them vegan. We live in San Francisco, after all.

I adapted The Shiksa in the Kitchen‘s recipes for both the filling and the pastry. I think it might be one of those instances where I change too many things in one go and it doesn’t turn out quite right. Specifically, I think the cookie is too orangey and too tough (though rereading the original recipe, I see that I accidentally used 1/4 cup too much flour, in addition to my change of using a little whole wheat flour–no wonder it seemed so dry!). If I make them again I will use no orange in the dough (though maybe lemon instead? I’m crazy about lemon) and maybe no wheat flour. I’ll also re-roll the dough fewer times. Having said all that, I’ll also say that I’ve eaten probably 10 of them since I made them yesterday.

About the filling, Mark and I talked about it and “plum cookie” sounds more appetizing than “prune cookie,” so there you go.

Plum Hamantashen
Adapted from The Shiksa in the Kitchen (here and here)
Total time: about 2 hours
Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Plum Filling
1 1/2 cups pitted prunes
1/2 cup water
Juice of half an orange
Zest of half an orange
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp sugar, more or less to taste

Cookie Dough
2 Tbsp ground flax seed
6 Tbsp cold water
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
Zest of one orange
1 tsp vanilla
2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 to 5 tsp water, if needed

Preheat oven to 350F.

For filling: In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to break prunes apart. When thickened, stir in sugar to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For dough: Mix flax seed and the six tablespoons water, refrigerate for a few minutes to thicken. In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil, zest, vanilla and flax mixture. In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the wet. Once combined, knead the dough until smooth, adding water as needed and being careful not to overwork. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 to 1/8 thickness. Cut in three inch circles, re-rolling the scraps and cutting more circles.

Assembly and baking: Place a small scoop (3/4 to 1 tsp) of filling in the middle of each circle of dough. Fold the cookie into a triangle and pinch the corners, see instructions here. Place cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Don’t crowd them but you also don’t need to worry about them spreading a lot. Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes, until they get some color (though these cookies won’t brown like a buttery cookie would). Cool on a rack and store in a lidded container.