Yes. I see those bready ones and think "a poppyseed knish?" They just look amazingly wrong to me.

Seems like time to bump this thread.

What I am looking for most is neither the cookie style nor the bready style but the yeast-risen pastry style -- if you think triangular danish filled with poppyseeds or prunes you won't be far off.

LAZ wrote:Seems like time to bump this thread.

What I am looking for most is neither the cookie style nor the bready style but the yeast-risen pastry style -- if you think triangular danish filled with poppyseeds or prunes you won't be far off.

Let me know when you find them - I love the yeast dough poppyseed ones.

Hmm. No idea if this is what you want, but I googled "purim yeast triangle".... most of these below have at least one recipe for a yeasted dough.

http://www.jewishmag.com/121mag/hamanta ... aschen.htm
http://www.jewishdayton.org/page.aspx?id=238581
http://purim.spike-jamie.com/recipes1.html

Tried a Bennison's cookie-dough prune hamentasch today--a large triangle of their usual butter cookie, scalloped sides folded in, with a decent amount of prune filling poking out, sprinkled with a few sliced almonds. In other words, it was what we might call a fancy schmancy hamentasch, and it was good, but it's still a cookie dough triangle, and I'm on the yeast-dough hamentaschen team. And at $1.56 a piece, even for a large one, I can pass this treat up.

leek wrote:Hmm. No idea if this is what you want, but I googled "purim yeast triangle".... most of these below have at least one recipe for a yeasted dough.

http://www.jewishmag.com/121mag/hamanta ... aschen.htm
http://www.jewishdayton.org/page.aspx?id=238581
http://purim.spike-jamie.com/recipes1.html

Thanks. I'm looking for places to buy them already made.

Rahmentashen

Picked up some hamentashen today from Shalom Bakery in Buffalo Grove. They have both the cookie style and the "poppyseed knish" style (but not the pastry variety). I thought both of these were better than Kaufman's, shown upthread. Also better than some cookie kind we got earlier this week from Max's Deli in Highland Park. Not sure where Max's gets theirs -- I don't think they do their own baking.

The Shalom cookies have a nice sandy texture to the dough and the poppyseed filling was very good. The bread-roll style features a tender, challah-like dough. I so far have tasted apricot, which was OK, and cherry, which seemed much like canned pie filling. We also picked up some rye bread, which had nice caraway flavor but was too squishy.

Shalom has closed for the sabbath but will be open on Sunday. (Purim ends at sunset Sunday.)

Shalom Kosher Bakery
1165 N Arlington Heights Road
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
847-808-9300

Another source for cookie-style is Mizrahi Grill, which sells ones filled with honey and walnuts.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried them.

Bulldog Bakery posted availability on Facebook. Don't know what variety.

3207 North Elston Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 539-9781

Bulldog said cookie style when I talked to them last week. I didn't ask about fillings.

Cabbagehead picked up some hamentaschen from Levinson's Bakery on Devon this afternoon. They are similar to the Kaufman's style shown upthread, but are, I think, less bready, with a larger filling to dough ratio. They're quite good and were happily eaten by my son's friends. His Polish friend said, "Oh, they're like paczkis!" He acknowledged the dough is somewhat different, though.

I tried prune and apricot, but there were also cherry and poppy seed. Unfortunately, the poppy seed one didn't make it into the bag. Levinson's makes cookie style hamentaschen as well, as several elderly customers were ascertaining at some length in the store this afternoon.

Levinson's Bakery
2856 West Devon Avenue
Chicago, IL 60659-1513
(773) 761-3174

EvA wrote:His Polish friend said, "Oh, they're like paczkis!" He acknowledged the dough is somewhat different, though.

Those from Shalom were even more paczki-like, being sweeter, although of course not fried.

Speaking of fried -- has anyone spotted any oznei haman? Somebody I know makes these from puff pastry.

LAZ wrote:

EvA wrote:His Polish friend said, "Oh, they're like paczkis!" He acknowledged the dough is somewhat different, though.

Those from Shalom were even more paczki-like, being sweeter, although of course not fried.

Speaking of fried -- has anyone spotted any oznei haman? Somebody I know makes these from puff pastry.

Of course, hamentaschen aren't fried, but there are similarities... Haven't seen ozenei hamen, but would love to try them.

Levinson's had both the pastry and yeast versions. The yeast version which I tried was rather disappointing - too doughy and not enough filling.

LAZ wrote:The bread-roll style features a tender, challah-like dough. I so far have tasted apricot, which was OK, and cherry, which seemed much like canned pie filling.

On second taste, maybe it's strawberry ... it just tastes red. I don't recommend that flavor, but the apricot and poppyseed were pretty good, if a little too sweet. For the style, the ratio of filling to dough is fine.

Himself, who actually did the shopping, reports that Shalom also sells an 8-inch version.

I don't understand why no one here does the triangular danish-like kind, though. I never saw the knish style till I came to Chicago.

Has anyone taken a picture of the Argo bakery ones?

Just saw this and thought any math nerds on LTH might enjoy seeing it

(boingboing) How to: Make a hamantaschen Sierpinski triangle

EvA wrote:

LAZ wrote:

EvA wrote:His Polish friend said, "Oh, they're like paczkis!" He acknowledged the dough is somewhat different, though.

Those from Shalom were even more paczki-like, being sweeter, although of course not fried.

Speaking of fried -- has anyone spotted any oznei haman? Somebody I know makes these from puff pastry.

Of course, hamentaschen aren't fried, but there are similarities... Haven't seen ozenei hamen, but would love to try them.

They're much closer to kolacki.

I'm still looking for the kind of hamantaschen that are like triangular danish. I mostly see the cookie type and a few places do the triangular rolls with filling, but I never see the danish type. They were the hamantaschen we always had when I was a kid in Detroit.

Purim kind of snuck up on me this year, but next year I may try to special order some. I'd assume anybody who can make a danish could make them.

A freilachen Purim, everyone!

I've always preferred the hamantashen made from a short pastry (like a sugar cookie dough), rather than the ones made from a raised dough (like a danish). In the greater NYC area I've seen both, but the short pastry ones are far more common; there, they're also generally available year round, rather than only around Purim which seems to be the case in Chicagoland.

Bennison's in Evanston currently has the ones made from short pastry, available through this Sunday, in five flavors: poppyseed, prune (with slivered almonds), apricot, raspberry, and apple. See the photo below as well as these links to their website. They're excellent!

I recently tried a poppyseed one from Kaufman's, whose hamantashen are made from a raised dough. It was nothing great, rather tasteless and skimpy on the filling. Which is unusual at Kaufman's; I find most of their baked goods are excellent, including items they have only started carrying since they re-opened. Their bread pudding is outstanding!

It's ironic that Bennison's makes Jewish-oriented pastries that are better and more authentic than Kaufman's. (This is also true of their black-and-whites, also pictured below.)

nsxtasy wrote:It's ironic that Bennison's makes Jewish-oriented pastries that are better and more authentic than Kaufman's.

You may prefer the short pastry, but it's not true that it's more authentic. This was an Eastern European pastry that was traditionally made with a yeast dough. Of course, in the US, many make it with the short pastry.

nsxtasy wrote:

I recently tried a poppyseed one from Kaufman's, whose hamantashen are made from a raised dough. It was nothing great, rather tasteless and skimpy on the filling. Which is unusual at Kaufman's; I find most of their baked goods are excellent, including items they have only started carrying since they re-opened. Their bread pudding is outstanding!

A week ago I bought several Kaufman's yeast hamantashen with poppyseed and found them to be excellent with ample poppyseed. They were as good as I remember from previous years. My wife (who is not Jewish) also likes them very much. I returned to buy a larger supply, much of which we froze for future enjoyment.

Different strokes for different folks.

nsxtasy wrote:I've always preferred the hamantashen made from a short pastry (like a sugar cookie dough), rather than the ones made from a raised dough (like a danish).

Yesterday Levinson's in West Rogers Park had both kinds, short pastry and raised dough. Fillings included poppyseed, prune, apple, cherry, apricot, and cheese.

I got a poppyseed short pastry one, shown below on a 6" diameter plate. It was awesome, with a delicious filling, the perfect balance between filling and crust, and a crust that was crumbly but not inconveniently so, sweet but not too sweet, and oh so rich. It was, quite simply, the best hamantashen I've ever had in my life.

Purim begins this coming Wednesday night.

nsxtasy wrote:Yesterday Levinson's in West Rogers Park had both kinds, short pastry and raised dough. Fillings included poppyseed, prune, apple, cherry, apricot, and cheese.

Short pastry hamantashen:

Raised dough hamantashen:

Last week I was at Kaufman's which had both kinds of Hamantaschen. I bought a number of the raised dough (they call it yeast) in poppy seed, apricot and prune. They were excellent. The dough was very light and airy, almost like a croissant.