Lemon Poppy Seed Vegan Hamantaschen
These Lemon Poppy Seed Vegan Hamantaschen are SO cute and delicious! And it’s definitely a fun little project to bake these! Hamantaschen are traditional Jewish pastries associated with the Jewish holiday Purim. The cookies are traditionally often filled with poppy seed filling, so that’s where my inspiration to flavour them with poppy seeds came from, but also lemon because that is a flavour combination that is hard to beat! They are also often filled with different flavoured fruit jams, but nowadays they seem to be filled with any flavour imaginable!
Flavours
These little triangular cookies have lemon curd filling in the pockets, and lemon zest in the dough. So there is a delicious amount of lemony goodness in these Lemon Poppy Seed Vegan Hamantaschen! You can use homemade lemon curd, or store-bought vegan lemon curd. It works best if the lemon curd has a thicker consistency, as this decreases the risk of the cookies leaking and means that the lemon curd is easier to handle while filling the hamantaschen pockets. I looove lemon curd with cookies! If you do too, I have another delicious lemon poppy seed cookie recipe here! They are so yummy and very easy to make!
Coconut cream is used in this recipe to bind together the ingredients and to add a vegan source of creamy fat content to the cookies. I used coconut cream because coconut goes soo beautifully together with lemon! Use only the thick part of the coconut cream from the can, not the liquid. Store the coconut cream in the fridge for about 24 hours before using it so it will thicken properly as it cools.
Process
I had a lot of fun experimenting with these cuties, and folding them together. There are two ways to put these Lemon Poppy Seed Vegan Hamantaschen together, you either fold or pinch the corners. First you use a circular cookie cutter to get a round dough shape, then you take a teaspoon of the filling and place it in the centre of the dough circle. Then you pick up three corners and either fold the corners or pinch them together to form a triangular pocket! I preferred pinching them together because I think they’re cuter that way, but whatever works for you! Be careful not to overfill the cookies though… because then they will leak in the oven! I know it’s tempting though because the filling is basically the best part haha. Just try and trust me, about a teaspoon of lemon curd is the right amount!
It’s important to chill the cookie dough before baking because otherwise they will spread as they bake. Chilling the dough and being careful to handle the dough as little as possible with your hands will ensure that your hamantaschen keep their perfect shape. If you notice your dough is getting very soft again when you’re handling it, try popping the dough back in the fridge for a bit so the dough will firm up again. Easy as pie! …em I mean vegan Hamantaschen!
These Lemon Poppy Seed Vegan Hamantaschen are light and delicate and fulllll of delicious citrus flavour and nutty poppy seed. So I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know what you think of these plant based cookies! 🙂
More recipes like these Lemon Poppy Seed Vegan Hamantaschen on my website:
Lemon Poppy Seed Vegan Hamantaschen
Equipment
- electric beater
Ingredients
- finely grated zest from one organic lemon
- 45 g white granulated sugar
- 100 g coconut cream (or high fat, thick yogurt like greek yogurt) the thick part from the top of a can, chill the can for 24 hours before using so the cream thickens
- 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup neutral flavoured vegetable oil
- 215 g all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Filling
- vegan lemon curd
Topping
- poppy seeds
Instructions
- Wash and dry the lemon, then zest it finely.
- Rub the lemon zest together with the sugar between your fingers to distribute the lemon oils in the sugar.
- Add all of the cookie ingredients to a mixing bowl. Mix the ingredients together with an electric mixer until the dough has come together completely. It ends up being like a sticky sugar cookie dough consistency. It will be sticky so you'll need to flour your working surfaces later.
- Once the dough is mixed, I transferred the dough to a large silicon baking mat. Dust some flour on the work space, and then roll the dough flat to 35-50 mm thickness. Then place the dough in the fridge to stiffen for about 30 minutes.
- Prepare two baking sheets, and preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Once the dough has chilled, use a cookie cutter or a glass and cut out circular cookie shapes in the dough. Remove the excess dough and set aside for the next batch of cookie circles, chilling the dough again if needed.
- Place one teaspoon of lemon curd on each cookie round. Then grab 3 corners and pinch the corners together to make a triangular pocket shape of each cookie. Then dab the poppy seeds on each cookie and press the seeds gently into the dough.
- Bake the cookies for about 14 minutes. They are done baking when the bottom has gained a bit of golden colour.
- Roll the rest of the dough out and repeat the process while the other cookies are baking.
- Let the cookies cool before enjoying as the filling becomes very hot!
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container. Enjoy!