It’s that time of year, friends! Purim is just a week away, and these vegan & gluten-free hamantaschen are the perfect little something to bake for the holiday, or just for fun!
We’ve got a classic apricot jelly filled cookie, and a fun spin with chocolate & peanut butter. There are endless possibilities for how you can fill these, and I can’t wait for you guys to make them.
This is my first year testing a homemade hamantaschen recipe, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. Since I personally have no allergies to gluten or dairy, I love enjoying the traditional cookies every year during this holiday.
I know that’s not the case for many of my followers, so I wanted to create a recipe that’s both vegan and gluten-free for everyone to enjoy.
The dough is made with only 9 ingredients, and takes about 5 minutes to prep. The hard part is waiting for the dough to chill, but the good news is that it can be made overnight so it’s ready to work with in the morning!
There are so many ways to fill your cookies, you can really get creative with them. I listed some of my favorite ones below.
Filling options for your gluten-free Hamantaschen
Classic Jelly
I love a classic apricot filled hamantaschen. You can use any jam you enjoy most, but I love to get one that’s naturally fruit-sweetened
Chocolate Peanut Butter
For this version, I shaped my cookies into a triangle, filled them with vegan chocolate chips, baked them, and then drizzled them with a simple peanut butter chocolate sauce made with melted chocolate chips and peanut butter.
Funfetti
I know this flavor isn’t traditional, but it’s definitely a fun flavor to make! For a funfetti hamantaschen, mix your dough with rainbow sprinkles while rolling it out. Form your triangles and leave them empty. Freeze them for 20 minutes, and then bake them as instructed. Once they’re baked and cooled, fill them with your favorite vanilla icing. I love using this dairy-free one!
Nutella
For a nutella version, fill the center of your cut out dough with 1 tsp of your favorite nutella (like this vegan one), fold it up into a triangle, and bake as instructed.
Tips for the best hamantaschen
- Don’t overfill your cookies! I suggest filling with no more than 1 tsp of jam or other topping
- Let the dough chill for at least 1 hour, but the longer the better
- Work with half the batch at a time so that the dough doesn’t soften
- Make sure to pinch the corners tight so that they don’t open
- Optional but suggested if you have some extra time: stick the shaped and filled hamantaschens in the freezer while your oven preheats, and bake them straight from the freezer. This will help them hold their shape
Be sure to read through all of the notes and steps before making your cookies. I tried to be as detailed as possible to help any first timers, but you can always leave a comment below, or message me on Instagram, if you have any questions!
Other gluten-free cookie recipes you may like:
Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
Gluten-free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten-free Hamantaschen
Course: Dessert14
servings1
hour5
minutes15
minutes1
hour20
minutesNOTES:
1- the longer the dough sits in the fridge, the better. You can even prep it the night before.
2- if you want to make empty cookies to fill them after they bake, cut out the dough, form the triangles, and let them freeze for 20 minutes before baking them.
3- if you want to make a small batch, you can cut the recipe in half
4- extra step if you have some extra time: stick the shaped and filled hamantaschens in the freezer while your oven preheats (10 minutes), and bake them straight from the freezer. This will help them hold their shape
Ingredients
2 cups fine almond flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar. You can also use coconut sugar, just note the color of the cookies will be darker
1/4 cup cold vegan or dairy butter, cubed- mine was salted
1/4 cup almond milk, or other plant-based milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
- Filling
Fruit jam, I used apricot
Dairy-free chocolate chips
- Toppings
Powdered sugar, to top
Chocolate peanut butter drizzle: melt 2 tbsp of chocolate chips with 1 tbsp of peanut butter
Directions
- PREP YOUR DOUGH: In a medium sized bowl, mix together the sugar, milk, vanilla, butter and orange zest. It’s fine if the butter is still a little clumpy.
- Add in your almond flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, and salt. Begin mixing together with your hand to break up the butter and incorporate it into the dry ingredients to create a dough. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to get all of the flour off.
- CHILL YOUR DOUGH: Once the dough is formed, remove it from the bowl and cover it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- After one hour, preheat your oven to 350 F.
- PREP YOUR COOKIES: Remove half of the dough and leave the other half in the fridge while you work with the first batch. On a lightly floured or greased surface (I like to sprinkle more tapioca flour), roll the dough out so that its about a 1/4″ thick. The dough is easier to remove if its thick, so you can always roll it out thicker, then flatten it with your fingers once you transfer it to the baking sheet.
- Using the top of a glass or cookie cutter that’s about 3″, cut out rounds and place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Continue rolling and cutting out the dough until all rounds are on the baking sheet. Each batch of dough should make 6-7 rounds.
- FILL YOUR COOKIES
Jam: if you’re filling your cookies with jam, place about 1/2- 1 tsp worth in the center of the dough. Bring up the three corners of the circle and pinch them in to form a triangle- I lightly wet my hands when folding up the dough
Chocolate: pinch up the corners of the dough to create a triangle, and fill each center with 1 tsp of dairy-free chocolate chips - BAKE YOUR COOKIES: Bake your cookies for 12-15 minutes, until they start to brown on the edges. Remove from oven and let them cool for 10 minutes. While the first batch bakes, repeat steps 5-7 with the remaining dough.
- After they’re cooled, drizzle the chocolate ones with the peanut butter chocolate mixture, and top both versions with powdered sugar.
- Keep them stored in a ziplock bag in a cool place for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 2 months. I prefer them kept in the fridge or freezer.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @somethingnutritious on Instagram- I’d love to see your creations!
These were delicious. I followed the directions exactly but when it came to shaping the dough into triangles it kept cracking. They were more like circles but still so good.
So so easy & tasty! Thank you for this recipe. Once out of the oven, they came out a little crumbly & were falling apart. Do I prevent this by putting them back in the fridge once formed? TY!
Hi Mel! I like to place them in the fridge after shaping while the oven preheats, it can definitely help! Because the dough is gluten-free, its a little trickier to work with so making sure to pinch the sides tightly and chilling them before baking can help
I forgot to add that I didn’t see a temperature for the oven on this recipe anywhere. Maybe I missed something, but we put it on 375 and baked for 10-12 minutes.
Ah it’s in step 4! I usually bake it on 350 F 🙂
Ok! These are seriously and literally, in every sense of the word, the BEST hamantaschen I’ve ever had! Usually they’re so bland and boring, even with filling. These were just so dang good!! The ONLY issue we had was the dough crumbled SO much when trying to form the triangle. I added some olive oil, and although somewhat helpful, it still didn’t help much. But thank you for providing an awesome recipe!
Hey Hessa, I’m so glad you enjoyed them!! and sorry to hear they crumbled for you, hamantaschen dough is so challenging to work with. My suggestion is to work in even smaller batches and let them reach room temp before trying to shape them so they’re not as cold.
Do you think you I could use a general all purpose gluten free flour instead?
Hey Sophie, I may be late here but I don’t recommend using gluten free flour unless it’s to replace only the tapioca flour. The fat in the almond flour contributes to the total fat in the recipe so substituting that may not work as well. Your best option for a gluten-free flour replacement is to follow a traditional recipe and use a 1:1 GF baking flour instead!
Made these for purim and was so pleased with the taste!! No one could tell they were gluten free/dairy free! Will definitely make next year.
Yay! so glad you tried them 🙂
Delicious and fun to make! I used arrowroot flour as well and they came out perfect. I filled half with blackberry jam and half with dark chocolate chips. First batch didn’t hold shape as well, but I made second batch slightly thicker dough and they held great.
These Hamantash are seriously the Best I ever had!!!! Soo delicious made 2 batches and plan to make more:)
That makes me so happy! Thank you, Ellie 🙂
Hi! These look great. Do you think you could make these a week before Purim and freeze them until the day?
Yes definitely! I froze a batch after baking them last week and they held up really well 🙂
What can I use in place of tapioca flour?
Hey Dina, unfortunately I haven’t tested any other flour. The tapioca really helps with the crunchy texture in these cookies.
I used arrowroot instead of tapioca came out perfect
Good to know!