Hamantaschen (Best Ever!)

A friend gave me this recipe for hamentaschen, the traditional pastry of the Jewish holiday of Purim. The filling is more likely to please an adult than a child. To use up all the filling takes somewhere between one and two batches of dough. These freeze well. I'm totally guessing on the time it takes to make them. They aren't quick, but worth the effort!

• Ready In: 2 hrs 15 mins
• Serves: 72
• Yields: 2 batches

Ingredients

• Filling

• 20  ounces  pitted prunes (2 packages)
• 12  ounces  dried apricots (2 packages)
• 6  ounces  dried peaches (1 package)
• 10  ounces raisins (1 package)
• 1  orange (thin skinned or peeled)
• 1  apple
• 6  ounces  apricot jam (1/2 a small jar or to taste)
• 1  dash lemon juice

• Dough

• 1  cup sugar
• 3  eggs
• 1  cup  oil
• 1⁄2 lemon, juice and zest of
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 3 -5  cups flour (sifted)
• 2  teaspoons baking powder
• 1  pinch baking soda

Directions

1. For the filling, simply chop all the ingredients fine in your food processor and mix well.
2. For the dough, cream sugar and eggs.
3. Add oil and mix until it turns pale yellow and is no longer shiny.
4. Mix in lemon and vanilla.
5. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
6. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet. When it becomes difficult to mix, add more flour and knead.
7. Preheat oven to 375°F.
8. To assemble cookies, roll out dough (in batches) to desired thickness (maybe a little thinner than 1/4") and cut into circles of desired size (can use cookie cutter, inverted glass, etc). Put a dollop of filling in the center of each cookie and fold up into a triangular shape, pinching the corners and leaving the center open so that the filling peeks out.
9. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes until they are beginning to brown. I've always greased the cookie sheet very lightly with non-stick spray, but I don't know that you need to.