Julie Van Rosendaal's recipe for hamantaschen

There is no food more closely tied to the Jewish holiday of Purim than hamantaschen, Eastern European sugar cookies folded into triangles to enclose various fillings. They're meant to resemble the tri-cornered hat of Haman, one of the Persian king's royal advisors.

Traditionally filled with thick poppy-seed paste, date, prune or apricot preserves, they could contain just about anything. These days you'll see versions filled with marzipan and sprinkles, Nutella, even savoury versions with veggies and cheese.

You could, in fact, fill these hamantaschen with just about any ingredient that would stand up to the heat of the oven. Any type of fruit compote or pie filling will work, and be contained by the edges of the cookie.

If you make the dough ahead of time and chill it, make sure it comes back to room temperature to roll and shape. If it cracks, don't sweat it — just pinch the edges together, or leave any cracked edges to bake back together in the oven.

Hamantaschen

Dough ingredients

¾ cup butter, at room temp

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

Filling ingredients

Use any thick jam or preserves

Preparation

To make the cookie dough, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and light; beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour and salt and beat on low speed or stir by hand just until the dough comes together.

Gather the dough up into a ball, cut it in half and, on a lightly floured surface, roll it out to about 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into 2½-3 inch circles with a cookie cutter or glass rim.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drop a small spoonful of filling into the middle of each cookie and fold over the sides to enclose it, forming a triangle.

Pinch the corners to seal, if you like, or make each fold go underneath the other layer of dough on one end, and overtop on the other. Fill them on a parchment-lined sheet or on the countertop and transfer to a parchment-lined sheet, and bake for 12-14 minutes, until pale golden.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. If you like, sprinkle them with icing sugar.

Serving: Makes about two dozen hamantaschen.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener

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