Gluten-Free Hamantaschen - Sugar-Free [ Purim Cookies ]

What's Cooking?'s Note:

This is a recipe for gluten-free, cane-sugar-free hamantaschen. They don't have a hard sugar-cookie consistency; Rather, they are more like soft, cakey pastries. Delicious! I filled half of my hamantaschen with no-sugar-added apricot preserves. The other half I filled with lekvar, a puree of dried prunes that have been softened in boiling water. You can buy canned lekvar, which has sugar or corn syrup in it, or you can try making it yourself using a traditional recipe but omitting or replacing the sugar. This recipe has no refined sugars. It uses agave nectar, which is one of the least refined sweeteners available. Though it naturally contains fructose, it is much lower on the glycemic index (GI) than other natural sweeteners, which can makes it more suitable for some diabetics, sugar-sensitive people, low-carbers, and hypoglycemics.

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 24 cookies

• 8 tablespoons margarine or 8 tablespoons butter , softened
• ¾ cup agave nectar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 ½ cups Pamelas ultimate baking and pancake mix (gluten-free)
• ½ cup potato starch
• 1 additional egg , well beaten and set aside

Directions:

1. With an electric hand mixer, or in the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter or margarine with the agave nectar. Add the unbeaten egg, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and continue combining. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
2. Slowly add the dry mixture into the liquid mixture. Mix until combined into a cohesive ball of dough. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
3. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Flour a counter or other surface thoroughly. Remove dough from refrigerator and immediately roll into a ball and roll the ball in flour before placing it on the floured counter. Roll out until 1/4" to 1/8" thickness. Using a juice glass or biscuit cutter, cut into 3-4" circles. Immediately move dough circles to parchment-lined cookie sheets. If the dough begins to stick to the counter, use a pastry scraper to gently transfer the disks of dough.
4. Place approximately 1 teaspoon of filling (apricot preserves, lekvar, poppyseed filling, raspberry jam, etc) in the center of each circle. Using a pastry brush, apply well-beaten egg to the perimeter of each dough circle and immediately fold 3 sides of circle together so that the cookie becomes a triangle, and pinch corners to seal. Seal completely and firmly, using beaten egg so they do not come apart in baking. If you have trouble sealing the corners, try folding them over a bit. The final cookie should look like a triangle with the filling showing through only at the center.
5. Use the remaining beaten egg to lightly brush the top of each pastry.
6. Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden on top but not overly browned on the bottom (lift one cookie up after 12 minutes to make sure the bottom hasn't become dark brown). Let cool slightly before serving or transferring to cooling rack.

Reviews

[Mia in Germany]

Delicious! I always wanted to make hamantaschen but abandoned the idea after going gluten free. Now finally I couldn't try the real thing, but these were excellent cookies. We don't have Pamela's mixes here in Germany, so I used my own mix for cookies made of millet flour, white rice flour, arrowroot starch and tapioca starch. Also I used rice syrup instead of agave. They turned out quie crispy. As I made them the same way as rbshaw, they didn't look as pretty as they're supposed to, but they were definitely five star tasty! Thanks for posting this! Made for Healthy Choices ABC.

[rbshaw]

Excellent! These are so good. I have never had a GF cookie taste so good with such a nice texture. The egg wash helps the cookies to have a litle crisp outer texture. I got lazy and rolled the dough in small balls with my hands squished with my fingers a bit into a circle, made a well and dropped the jam in the well , I didn't do the egg wash they were still really really good but the egg wash made them just a bit better-either way, amazing! I also used and silicone mat on the cookie sheet (walmart, target? inexpensive and cuts out the need for greasing flowering etc ) makes for less burning mistakes with GF cookies-Thank-you so much for posting this I never thought I would ever taste a cookie this good again (w/o cheating!)

[Cooking Complex]

Hamantaschen are back--woohoo! I had missed these from my pre-GF days. It's true that they aren't quite like the firmer, more crumbly cookies of my youth, but the softer texture is actually really nice. I served these to several of my gluten-eating friends--some Jewish and some not--and they got rave reviews all around. Cooking notes: I was able to make these without any sort of an electric/standing mixer--it wasn't too difficult at all. Also, my generally needed 17-20 minutes to bake.