The New York Times has a fun article on traditional hamantaschen, and some newer riffs on the classic.
Fillings of poppy seeds, nuts and dried fruits used to be as exciting as these Eastern European sweets got. But at Lehamim, marzipan, sour apple, dates with sweet red wine and cinnamon, halvah, and chocolate chip cream pop out of their tops. Other bakeries have such unconventional fillings as amaretto, meringue with cream, marshmallows, strawberries and orange jam, and pistachio with rosewater.
And then later:
“I have never seen customers like in Israel,” said Uri Scheft, the baker and an owner of Lehamim, a kosher bakery with the most modern baking equipment from Europe. “I listen to what they want, always new things.”
“Our customers are always asking us for different kinds of hamantashen,” he added. The bakery uses butter in its dough, unusual for a kosher bakery, and makes about a dozen types, like one with spelt flour filled with sugar-free preserves, and savory quichelike versions stuffed with potatoes and sesame seeds or feta cheese and beets. His triangles are also tinier than usual.
A savory hamantaschen! With beets! (Though in the slide show, the feta seems to be with berries, not beets.) Somebody make these for me right now.
Other hamantaschen I would try:
Pumpkin
Mango chutney
Sun-dried tomato, basil, and kalamata olive (with or without feta)
Chana masala
Just don’t make a hummus hamantaschen, okay? I don’t think I could handle that.
kosher
Pronounced: KOH-sher, Origin: Hebrew, adhering to kashrut, the traditional Jewish dietary laws.
