As you may remember from my post last year about Hamantaschen…I am typically not such a big fan. The ones I remember growing up with were always dry and crumbly.Until I found my friend Rachel’s Hamantaschen recipe, I had written off the triangle treats entirely.
Last year I made PB & Jelly flavored hamantaschen as well as a s’mores flavor. And this year I am happy to share a new flavor: Dark Chocolate Ganache with Salted Caramel Drizzle.
I know some people are “so over the salty sweet thing;” but I am not. My favorite chocolate will always be chocolate covered pretzels. And you know what’s better than chocolate covered pretzels? Chocolate covered potato chips. And perhaps the best? The peanut butter filled pretzel bites covered in milk chocolate from Trader Joe’s. But I digress.
I surprised even myself with this recipe – it is really delicious, and both my husband and I could not stop eating these.
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My tips:
Rachel’s Best Hamantaschen dough often requires a bit more than merely 1 1/4 cups flour it initially calls for. Also, keep flour-ing your work surface as you go.
Plan ahead – you really need to make the dough and the ganache ahead of time because they both need to chill properly before making them.
Pinch pinch pinch! Pinch those corners, otherwise your filling will spill out and make for ugly cookies.
Ingredients
Dough:
½ cup butter (or margarine)
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk (or almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Dark Chocolate Ganache:
3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt
Rum to taste (optional)
1 batch Salted Caramel Sauce
Directions
Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add egg, milk, vanilla and orange zest until mixed thoroughly.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add dry mixture to wet mixture until incorporated.
Note: if the dough is too soft, increase flour amount by ½ cupfuls until firm.
Chill dough for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
Over a double boiler, heat cream and chopped chocolate. When chocolate is mostly melted, lightly whisk until ganache is smooth and shiny. Whisk in rum and salt. Chill for several hours.
Dust surface with powdered sugar or flour to keep from sticking. Roll the dough to about ¼ inch thick.
Using a round cookie cutter, cut out and place onto cookie sheet. To keep the dough from sticking to your cutter, dip in powdered sugar or flour before each cut!
Remove ganache from fridge, and using a teaspoon form about 1/2 inch round balls and place in center of dough. Carefully fold in the edges to form a triangular shape, and pinch the corners tightly to seal.
Bake at 400° for about 7-9 minutes.
Allow cookies to cool completely.
Using a teaspoon or a small plastic squeeze bottle, drizzle caramel sauce back and forth on cookies. If desired, sprinkle with scant amount of thick sea salt.
