Black Sesame and Strawberry Hamantaschen

A friend brought over some mishloach manot containing, among other things, hamantaschen, the traditional cookie for Purim. This inspired me to look for something for my daughter and I to make also.

I found this recipe on 18 Doors; the author is Kristin Eriko Posner. To prepare, I needed to purchase black tahini (as I thought I didn’t have any black sesame paste at home). I also thawed a jar of our homemade strawberry jam to use for the filling, then boiling it to thicken it.

Despite all of Posner’s notes for chilling and rolling the dough, we had a hard time with it. It does crack very easily, but actually improved as our hands warmed the dough. I made about 9 cookies using the 3.5” cutter, but my daughter made more from a smaller cutter with the scraps. In our haste, we forgot to apply an egg wash!

Fresh out of the oven, these cookies were crisp and very satisfying. The grayness of the cookies were the only hint of the black sesame, as we couldn’t detect the taste at all. I would double or even triple the amount of black tahini next time. Or, seeing what difference using a Chinese black sesame paste would make: I found a jar in the back of the pantry downstairs!

A few days later, in a covered container, the cookies had softened from the jam, and were tender and still delicious. Using a less sweet, homemade jam really makes a difference.