In that spirit, I’ve come up with a fun twist on standard hamantashen: Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Hamantashen!

This recipe replaces the typical plain cookie Dough with a rich chocolate dough. It’s filled with strawberry jam before being folded into the traditional triangle shape. After they’re cooled, the cookies are dipped in chocolate and dusted with a sprinkling of strawberry powder, so that every bite is absolutely packed with chocolate and strawberry flavor.

The strawberry powder comes from one of my favorite secret ingredients: freeze-dried strawberries. They’re tart, crunchy slices of strawberries that are easily crushed into a very fine powder that has an intense strawberry flavor. It may not look like much, but a little goes a long way! A sprinkling of strawberry powder gives these cookies a bright punch of pink color and a bold strawberry taste that’s perfect when paired with the dark chocolate. If you don’t have the freeze-dried strawberries, never fear! The strawberry jam filling still does a great job of providing a fresh, fruity flavor.

This is a great recipe to include in your Purim baking. It’s dairy-free and really flexible, so play around with it! Try adding chocolate chips or a bit of Nutella to the strawberry filling, or branch out from strawberry entirely and try stuffing them with another flavor of jam, a cream cheese filling, or even something fun like cookie dough! After you’ve tried Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Hamantashen, you may never go back to the original kind again! Ready to get started? Here’s what you’ll need:

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Hamentashen
yield: 44 hamentashen

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. You can make this recipe by hand, or use an electric mixer. Whichever you choose, make sure you use a bowl that gives you plenty of room to stir everything together.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract.

Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients, and stir everything together.

At first the mixture will seem really dry and difficult to stir, but as you keep at it, it will all come together in a smooth dough. You can use a mixer to do this part as well–just be sure to use a paddle attachment on a medium-low speed so the dough doesn’t get overworked.

Toward the end of the mixing process, you might find it easiest to knead the dough by hand until it is smooth and supple. Form the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for an hour to firm it up a bit.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Divide the dough in half, and roll out half of the dough between two sheets of waxed paper or parchment paper, until it is less than 1/4-inch thick—too thick and it’s difficult to fold, but too thin and it’s more likely to crack and leak. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter to cut circles out of the dough. Transfer the circles to a baking sheet lined with parchment.

Before the cookie circles get too dry, fill and fold them. Place 1 tsp strawberry jam in the center of each cookie circle—you might be tempted to add more filling, but resist—too much filling will cause the hamantashen to leak or open up.

To fold the cookies, first take one side and fold it over, then fold over the opposite side so that the top forms a point. Finally, fold up the bottom so that it is a triangle shape with some of the jam showing in the center. Tuck one side of the bottom flap under the first fold, so that each flap is overlapped by another—this will help them to stay closed. Lightly pinch the corners of each cookie to seal them closed.

Re-roll the scraps of dough, and repeat the filling and folding process. Roll out the second half of the dough and repeat the whole process. You should get about 44 cookies from this batch if you use a 3-inch cookie cutter. Bake the cookies at 350 F for about 10 minutes, until they are puffed and set around the edges. Let the cookies cool completely before proceeding.

Place the freeze-dried strawberries in the bowl of a food processor and process them until they’re a fine powder. If you don’t have a food processor, you can put the strawberries in a large zip-top bag and roll over them with a rolling pin until they’re crushed into a powder.

Melt the Chocolate Candy Coating in a bowl in the microwave, stirring after every 30 seconds to prevent overheating. Hold a cookie by one tip, and dip it partially in the chocolate, covering about half of the cookie.

Place the dipped cookie back on a baking sheet covered with parchment, and while the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle it with some of the strawberry powder. Once the chocolate sets, your cookies are ready to be enjoyed! As always, there’s an easily printable recipe and Pin-able image below. Happy Purim!

All text and images (c) Elizabeth LaBau