A marbleized hamantaschen recipe that blends chocolate and vanilla doughs with a cream cheese filling offers a dairy-rich alternative to the traditional pareve cookies eaten during the Jewish festival of Purim. The recipe, adapted from Breads Bakery in New York, yields 30 to 36 triangular cookies and can be made in a food processor in under five minutes, according to the writer.
Hamantaschen are typically made without dairy so they can be served at any meal, but this version deliberately includes cream cheese and butter. The writer describes the result as "rich, delicious, and unfussy," though the marbled pattern can resemble cow hides rather than the intended carrara marble.
The recipe calls for a cream cheese filling made with sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and egg yolk, chilled before use. The dough combines butter, sugars, flour, egg, and vanilla, then is divided and mixed with either additional flour or cocoa powder to create the two tones. Dollops of each dough are pressed together and rolled into a 1/8-inch slab, cut into 3-inch rounds, filled, and pinched into triangles. Baking takes 20 to 25 minutes. The cookies keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.
The writer notes that the recipe was scaled down from Breads Bakery's version by a factor of 1/13 to better match grocery sizes, with reduced sugar and increased salt. The dough can be made with cold butter in a food processor or stand mixer; without either, the butter must be softened first. The cream cheese filling expands in the oven, so the writer advises leaving a marble-to-quarter-sized opening when pinching the cookies closed.
While the recipe is less traditional due to its dairy content, the writer considers it the final hamantaschen recipe they will ever want. The full ingredients and directions are provided, including a note to reroll scraps and use about two-thirds of the filling.
Editorial Notes