Nutella-Filled Hamantaschen

Name: Nutella-Filled Hamantaschen
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour (8 & 1/2 oz/240 g); 2 pinches salt; 1/8 teaspoon baking powder; 1 large egg or egg substitute; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 1/4 cup sour cream (2 oz/57 g); 1/2 cup sugar (3 & 1/2 oz/99g (I use 1/4 cup white & 1/4 cup Turbinado or raw sugar.)); 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 8 chunks (1 stick/1/4 pound/4oz/113 g); 1 cup Nutella (10 & 1/2 oz/296 g); 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon flour (4 oz/113 g); 1/2 cup sugar (3 & 1/2 oz/99 g); 1 egg, mixed with 1 tablespoon water or an egg substitute; 1 egg, mixed with 1 & 1/2 - 2 teaspoons water or an egg wash substitute

March 11, 2025 by Laura 39 Comments

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Nutella-filled hamantaschen is an update one of my all-time favorite cookies, hamantaschen. These three-cornered filled pastries are a delightful way to celebrate the Jewish holiday, Purim. But honestly, they’re delicious anytime. And to paraphrase an old commercial, you don’t have to be Jewish to love Nutella -filled hamantaschen .

Closeup of Nutella Hamantaschen on parchment paper after baking

Before we get to the recipe, let’s get one thing straight. Purim is not a major Jewish holiday on the order of Rosh Hashanah or Passover.

Still, it is one I love to celebrate. The Purim story, found in a book called the Megillah or Book of Esther, features everything you could want in a political potboiler – an evil guy, a plot to kill innocent people, a beautiful and intelligent heroine, suspense, and a happy ending. Why bother watching House of Cards when you could hear this tale instead?

The Megillah is typically read on Purim with great merriment; often those reading the story dress up in costumes and the congregants get noisemakers called groggers to use when the story mentions Haman, the evil protagonist. I am not sure why I kept this grogger, but it definitely comes in handy when we celebrate Purim. Whether it’s to drown out Haman’s name or just to sit next to my hamantaschen, I had to smile when I found this one hidden among my driedels and other Jewish “stuff.”

While it seems rather bizarre to me, there is a tradition that the adults should get drunk before they read the Megillah. So drunk, in fact, that they can’t tell the difference between the good guys and the evil ones.

And then there are hamantaschen! No Jewish holiday is complete without food. In this case, we feast on a cookie made in a triangle shape. Traditionally we fill hamantaschen with sweetened prunes, apricots, or a poppyseed-based mixture.

Why Call these Cookies Hamantaschen?

Hamantaschen literally means Haman’s pockets. In Israel, hamantaschen are called oznei Haman, or Haman’s ears. Sometime in the 18th or 19th century in Germany and Eastern Europe, a triangular pastry pocket filled with poppy seeds often called mohntaschen — mohn meaning meaning poppy seed, and tasch meaning pocket — came onto the scene. The word became a pun around Purim: oznei Haman plus mohntaschen created hamantaschen.

Piece of Nutella Hamantaschen in front of a plate of hamantaschen

Why Are Hamantaschen Shaped Like Triangles/Three-Cornered?

There is an old legend that Haman wore a three-cornered hat.
Alternatively, an ancient Jewish text says that when Haman recognized the merit of the Three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), his strength immediately weakened.
An archaeologist named Simcha Jacobovici showed that hamantashen look like dice from the ancient Babylonian Royal Game of Ur, suggesting that the pastries are meant to symbolize the pyramidal shape of the dice cast by Haman in determining the day of destruction for the Jews.
As the events which became the Purim story unfolded, many Jews did not believe they were going be completely wiped out. Mordechai convinced them of the seriousness of the threat by sending them numerous letters warning them of the impending doom. Afraid to send the letters by conventional routes lest their enemies intercept them, he sent the letters hidden inside pastries. In commemoration of this, we eat pastries with a filling.
Another explanation is that the shape derives from traditional Jewish baking techniques in Central Europe for folding dough so as to form a pouch around a filling, also common for making dumplings.
Finally, some think that the shape represents the female reproductive organs, and that traditional poppy-seed filling is a fertility symbol.

Man's fingers holding a whole (unbroken) Nutella hamantaschen in front of a plate

Hamantaschen Variations

While I do love the time-honored story, I prefer more creative hamantaschen. I did hamantaschen with a filling reminiscent of charoset plus chocolate. But here chocolate is center stage; I went for the jar of Nutella, sitting in my pantry just begging to be part of the fun. The result is a sweet, not-too-thick dough (pâte sucrée to Francophiles) surrounding a Nutella brownie-cookie center.

By the way, if you prefer a more traditional but still creative bent or just don’t do chocolate, try my apricot-filled hamantaschen. More adventurous but still fruit-based is my apple pie hamantaschen. If you’re nut-free but still like chocolate, try Jenn Segal’s nut-free chocolate filling.

While the dough recipe is close to the one I used in the past I learned a few tricks to simplify the dough making from Rose Levy Beranbaum, in her book, The Baking Bible. The Nutella center for the hamantaschen is an adaptation of my Nutella cookie recipe.

And these days, while eggs are so expensive, unavailable, and/or unsafe to use, feel free to substitute for them. Especially in the “wash,” you will not know the difference.

dough circle ready to be filled for Nutella Hamantaschen

Tips for Making Great Hamantaschen

Keep the dough and filling cool. Chilling is key. Keep the dough and filling chilled. If you have to chill them in-between. Or if your kitchen is hot and the dough and/or filling is getting warm, chill as often and as long as necessary to keep them cool. If you have time, it even helps to chill hamantaschen after you form them, before baking.
Remember the egg or other wash. Although you may think it a frill, wash is critical. Besides making the outside shiny and darker, it acts as glue when you paint the outer edge of the dough circle before pressing the three corners together.
Don’t overfill hamanataschen. No matter how tempted you are to add more filling, don’t do it.
Use a firm but gentle touch when forming hamantaschen. After putting the Nutella in the center of the circle of dough, press it down firmly but gently. Do the same for the three tips of dough. I like to press and then go back over the tips and press them again. If you haven’t pressed the Nutella down and the tips of dough together, the hamantaschen will still taste delicious. But the tips will open up and the cookies will look rather misshapen.
Don’t be dismayed if a hamanatschen (or two) open up. The ideal is that all your hamantaschen will bake up as three-cornered. But if one or two open up, do not despair. They still taste delicious.

nutella hamantaschen opened up after baking

Kevin (my beloved) eating an opened up nutella hamantaschen.

By the way, sprinkles are a great way to entice kids. These hamantaschen probably would have been kid-approved anyway, but the sprinkles certainly didn’t hurt.