Hamantaschen — The Handmade Pastry That Carries Every Kind of Love

Valentine's Day 2024. Our last Valentine's Day before the wedding. In four months, I won't have a girlfriend or a fiancée. I'll have a wife. The word "wife" does something to me that I can't explain — it's heavy and light at the same time, like holding a bird. Delicate. Alive. Yours to protect.

I didn't do the fancy dinner this year. Instead, I made Babcia's pierogi — just the potato and cheese, just the classic, just the one that started it all. I set the table with candles and the nice plates and I served pierogi with sour cream and fried onions and a simple green salad because even romance needs fiber. Megan sat down and said, "Pierogi for Valentine's Day." I said, "Everything important in our life has involved pierogi." She said, "You're not wrong." I'm not wrong. Our first date: pierogi from a Tupperware. The proposal: preceded by pierogi. The wedding: five hundred dozen pierogi. Valentine's Day: pierogi. This is the love story of a man and his dumplings, and the woman who was wise enough to love them both.

She gave me cufflinks. Silver, engraved with a P on one and an 8 on the other. P for pierogi. 8 for Danny. I will wear them at the wedding. I will wear them at every important event for the rest of my life. She knows me. She knows every corner and shadow and silly obsession. She knows me and she chose me anyway. That's the whole story.

After dinner, we folded wedding programs on the couch. Two hundred programs, folded in half, stacked neatly. We watched a movie while we folded. Megan fell asleep at 9:30, as she does. I finished the programs alone and covered her with a blanket and kissed her forehead and thought, four months. Four months until forever.

That night, after the programs were folded and Megan was asleep under her blanket, I kept thinking about what it means to make something by hand for someone you love — the pinching, the folding, the imperfect triangles that somehow always taste exactly right. Hamantaschen come from the same corner of the world as Babcia’s kitchen: Eastern Europe, where the answer to every emotion is dough filled with something good. If you’re in the mood to fold something with care — the way you might fold two hundred wedding programs, or crimp the edge of a pierogi — this is the recipe for that feeling.

Hamantaschen

Prep Time: 30 min + 1 hr chill | Cook Time: 14 min | Total Time: 1 hr 45 min | Servings: 28 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp orange zest (optional, but worth it)
• 3/4 cup fruit jam — apricot, raspberry, or strawberry all work beautifully

Instructions

1. Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
3. Add the wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, orange juice, vanilla extract, and orange zest (if using) until fully combined.
4. Bring the dough together. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
5. Chill. Divide the dough in half, flatten each portion into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (up to overnight). Cold dough holds its shape during baking.
6. Preheat and prep. When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Roll and cut. On a lightly floured surface, roll one dough disk to about 1/8-inch thickness. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter (or the rim of a glass) to cut circles. Re-roll scraps once.
8. Fill. Place about 1 tsp of jam in the center of each circle. Do not overfill — it will leak out during baking.
9. Fold into triangles. Fold up three sides of the circle toward the center, overlapping the edges slightly to form a triangle. Pinch each corner firmly so the seams hold during baking. This is the part that takes patience — give it that patience.
10. Bake. Arrange on the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart. Bake for 12–14 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly golden and the edges are just set. They should look barely done — they firm up as they cool.
11. Cool. Let rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough disk.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 98 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Carbs: 16g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 38mg