What is Your Favorite Hamantaschen Filling?

[CindyJ]

Purim is nearly here and this year I'm once again going to try my hand at making my own hamantaschen. I've got a fairly good recipe for the cookie dough (although I must admit, my dough-pinching/cookie-shaping technique needs LOTS of improvement), but I'm looking for a new, delicious fruit filling. Any suggestions?

[magiesmom]

I like prune, poppy and apricot combined. Yum! I tried lime curd one year and it was good but weird.I think it was just too unfamiliar; I get that way about childhood foods sometimes, though

[RobbieM]

I think I'm going to try the prune filling boisenewbie listed in another post:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5993...

I'll let you know how it comes out, did you ever try the lemon curd filling? It might be a good excuse to go out an buy a double boiler if it came out good.

[phantomdoc]

Poppyseed filling is my favorite.

[dmjuli]

I just made apricot, prune, nutella with cherry preserves and fig!

[AmyH]

I've always been a big fan of prune or apricot. There's also a good easy recipe for a raisin nut filling in Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America book. I started making some with Nutella a couple of years ago based on a previous chowhound thread and the kids love it. I was impressed with how firm it baked up. Thanks for the guava paste idea. I'm definitely going to add that to the filling repetoire this year. I may have to make a double batch of dough!

[kattyeyes]

CindyJ: Would you be willing to share your hamantaschen dough recipe on the other Home Cooking thread? Mom and I plan to try to make our own for the first time:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/597310

[CindyJ]

Kattyeyes: I just posted a link to that recipe to the other thread. But I'll leave it here, too. http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES...

[kattyeyes]

Thank you kindly! I have never encountered chocolate filling for hamantaschen! But the dough looks right on--I like ones that are sweet and cookie-like. Will be trying 'em with apricot filling for sure, and maybe my mom's lemon curd.

[CindyJ]

Does your mom make her own lemon curd? If so, would she mind sharing her recipe?

[kattyeyes]

Yes, she does. I'll get the recipe and post back. Here we go!

Lemon Curd

Grated zest of 2 lemons
1 stick butter
Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated (beat yolks and whites separately)

Put the zest, juice, butter and sugar into the top of a double boiler.

Stir until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Beat egg yolks and drizzle into hot mixture to temper. Fold egg whites into curd, stirring constantly. And continue cooking until curd thickens. Pour into baked shell or dessert dishes.

[CindyJ]

Thanks to your mom! A question -- when you use it for hamantaschen filling, does it "mound" in the cookie, or is it more runny than that?

[kattyeyes]

My mom asked the same question (thinking the curd would be too runny), so let's ask rockycat...

rockycat: How do you modify your lime curd to make it thick enough to use as a hamantaschen filling?

[rockycat]

[written with an embarrassed cringe] Er, mine came from a jar. I usually make my own citrus curds but when I have more dough than I have filling, which is almost always, I either raid the fridge for anything that looks like it could be turned into filling or I run to the store and grab a jar of whatever looks good. That's how I ended up with lime curd one year. The array of fruit curds are at eye level in my grocery store and that's the one that caught my interest. I think the brand was Robertson's or something very similar. I honestly have no idea what they put in there and I'm probably better off not knowing. Sorry for not being of more help.

[kattyeyes]

No worries (and no need to cringe!). ;) We can wing it with the curd if we're feeling adventurous. Since it's our first go-round in the land of Hamantaschen, I am more than happy to try the Simon Fischer apricot. Just waiting for more to come in at The Crown! Thanks for letting us know.

[Jay F]

I've never made lemon curd with separated eggs before, but it sounds absolutely wonderful. Thanks for that idea. And thanks to your mom.

[Cebca]

apricot. simple, traditional, delicious.

[TampaAurora]

Anyone use strawberry? I have a pint that I need to use up.

[fbf242]

Not fruit, but my favorite is ground poppy seeds.

[rockycat]

Our family favorite is good old prune from the Simon Fischer jar but I've had great luck with
Chinese Red Bean filling and lime curd. This year I'll be trying guava paste.

[operagirl]

Oh my gosh, guava paste in hamentaschen sounds AWESOME! I'm going to have to try that one.

[marthasway]

Prune is my favorite, but I'll have to do some guava paste, too. What a great idea.

[kattyeyes]

Hey, rockycat! I still have your red bean filling in mind from an earlier post...but curd sounds even better. My mom makes a mean lemon curd. Thanks for suggesting!

[rockycat]

Follow up on the guava paste...
The baking is half done and we've tried a few of the guava paste hamantaschen that fell apart in the oven. OMG, are they ever good! The paste is very stiff and a little difficult to work with, but the taste is outstanding. These are going to be part of the standard flavor array now.
Prune and guava paste done. Lime curd and ginger preserves (a last minute impulse buy) get baked tonight. Anyone else have any reports on how their baking's going?

[AmyH]

I tried the guava paste, too, and loved it. I just cut little chunks of it about the size of the dollops of other fillings. It didn't soften up much in baking, but it sure tasted great. It played nicely off the sweet cookie-like dough that I use. I made my own prune filling this year because I'm really the only one in the family who eats it, and I didn't want to open a whole can. So I just took about 5 prunes and some orange zest and a little water, heated them up in the microwave, let them steam until they were cooled back down, and gave them a whir in my little food chopper attachment that came with my immersion blender. It was quite good and less sweet than the canned filling.

[TampaAurora]

A girl of simple tastes in this case - I love cherry filling. I use a citrus sugar cookie base and am on the search for more fillings as well.

[Stuffed Monkey]

Not fruit, but by far it's Nutella.
I also make prune (my favorite fruit) and apricot.