Purim is coming up in t-minus one week-ish! And I, for one, am ready with yet another colorful cookie recipe. If these audible/edible groggers didn’t do it for ya, I’m hoping these equally colorful, sprinkley hamantaschen will!
Here’s the quick backstory: We all know (and love) (and think about at odd hours of the day and night) (and have considered proposing to) Molly Yeh’s genius sprinkle hamantaschen, right? Well, as I was scratching my head trying to come up with an idea of my own this year, I, too, kept coming back to SPRINKLES.
For one thing, they’re colorful and cheerful and the mere thought of them makes me want to break into song. But for another, they’re just perfect for a holiday like Purim, which is one of the most joyful on the Jewish calendar.
But how to insert that same pop of pep into my own hamantaschen creations without feeling too “been there, done-that”?
Enter these “inside-out” sprinkle hamantaschen.
These sprinkle-covered beauties don’t actually feature any sprinkles. Confusing? Perhaps. But also wonderful, because it means that if you don’t happen to have any decorative sugary things in your pantry, you can still go all-out with an adorable hamantaschen design. These cookies are coated in a whimsical smattering of sprinkle “cookies,” which are made using hamantaschen dough scraps (or, in my case, with sugar cookie dough, since the base of my hamantaschen recipe is actually a buttery sugar cookie).
The best part? They’re naturally colored! Those pinks and purples and greens are from veggies and berries, or a mix of the two. Thank you, natural-but-beautiful point-provers: purple sweet potato, red radish, red beet, elderberry, turmeric, spirulina. 🙏🏻 And whatever else is in these nifty packets.
Here’s how to make these rainbow-colored treats:
Inside-Out Sprinkle Hamantaschen
What You’ll Need:
- 1 batch of your favorite *dairy* hamantaschen recipe (the butter is important when it comes to maintaining color throughout the baking process), prepared all the way up until the “baking” step, with 1/3 of the dough set aside (I am personally partial to this recipe because if sugar cookie dough is good enough for Alice Medrich, it’s good enough for me!)
- Food coloring
- Water or egg wash
What You’ll Do:
- Keep your nearly-ready-to-bake, almost-all-finished hamantaschen in the fridge while you work on crafting your sprinkles. Split your 1/3 leftover dough into as many sections as you’d like there to be colors. For me, that was a grand total of five sections: pink, blue, green, yellow, and purple. But you could add in another, or just make pink and blue sprinkles, or just pink…whatever floats your boat! Use your hands (wearing gloves is a good idea but not required!) to smush the respective coloring into each of your dough mounds.
One color tip: You may notice that the colors aren’t quite appearing “as advertised” since your dough likely has quite a bit of “yellow” in it already (from the butter and eggs!). This means that you’re essentially already working with a yellow-colored base. Add blue, and you’ll get a yellow + blue combo; add pink, and you’ll get a yellow + pink combo. Those might create green or orange, respectively! It’s just something to be aware of as you add less or more of each color. - Use a rolling pin to roll out each respective colored mound of colored dough until it’s a scant 1/8-inch thick. Then, make many thin vertical cuts through each mound, and cut again to form your “sprinkles.” They’re intended to be a little oversized.
- Remove your hamantaschen from the refrigerator. Use your finger to apply a small amount of water or egg wash to the back of each “sprinkle” to help it stick to the surface of the hamantaschen. Then, press each sprinkle gently but firmly into place. Repeat with each “sprinkle,” applying artfully to your hamantaschen.
- Place the sprinkle-covered hamantaschen in the refrigerator until well-chilled, about 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven according to your recipe of choice. Remove the chilled hamantaschen from fridge and bake as directed (just keep an eye on them to make sure that the sprinkle bits don’t brown too much). Enjoy!
