Here are some kid-friendly Purim ideas brought to us from Education.com. Even young children can help with preparing this easy hamantaschen recipe, and they can choose their favorite fillings.
While the cookies are baking, you can print out this fun hamantaschen coloring page for your kids and they can draw “their” hamantaschen with the appropriate filling colors that you’ve chosen.
Hamantaschen Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 sticks butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups of filling: apricot jam, nutella, or other thick compotes work well
Directions:
- In one mixing bowl, have your child stir together the flour and salt. Set the mixture aside.
- Ask or help your child use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
- Have your child help mix one egg, the orange zest, and vanilla into the butter and sugar.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar and mix them carefully together, until the dough appears crumbly.
- Have your child mix the dough with her hands to form it into a smooth ball. Show your child how to use plastic wrap to cover the dough; refrigerate it for two to eight hours, or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 375° F.
- Have your child take out a large cutting board, or put a large piece of parchment paper over the counter, and sprinkle flour across the workspace where she will be rolling out the dough.
- Ask your child to remove the dough from the refrigerator and have him or her divide it into four pieces so it’s easier to work with.
- Use a rolling pin to flatten the first ball of dough to a thickness of about 1/4-inch or even smaller. She can use a cookie cutter, or the top of a drinking glass to cut out round circles.
- Ask your child to transfer the cookie shapes to a cookie sheet with about an inch of space between them. Place a teaspoonful of her preferred filling onto the center of each cookie.
- Help your child pinch together three sides of each filled cookie into a triangular shape. The filling should hold together in this shape, yet still be exposed on top. It may help your child to moisten the surface of the dough to work with it easier.
- Once they are filled, beat the remaining egg in a small bowl and have your child can use a pastry brush to carefully brush the beaten egg over each cookie.
- Bake the cookies at 375° F for about 20-25 minutes or until golden. While the first batch bakes, continue cutting, filling, and brushing the remaining dough until all the cookies are finished.
- Let the cookies cool before eating them — remember that the filling will take more time to cool than the dough.
The recipe yields 20-30 cookies
Happy Purim Coloring Page
Here is a hamantaschen coloring page. Print it out and color in with your favorite filling – or try and match the cookies that you’re baking!
