Pareve Hamantaschen

Pareve Hamantaschen

Makes 40 medium size pastries

2 & 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tespoon vanilla extract

1-5 teaspoon water (if you need. I did not need it)

Filling: favourite one

Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl  mix sugar with orange zest, add eggs, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture, stirring, until a smooth dough is formed. Gather dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Let rest for 30 minutes on a counter.

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Halve dough. On a lightly floured surface roll out half of dough 1/4 inch thick. With a 3-inch cutter cut out as many rounds as possible. Transfer rounds with a metal spatula to a large baking sheet, arranging about 1/2 inch apart. Reroll scraps and cut out more rounds. Put 1 teaspoon filling in center of each round and fold up edges to form triangular cookies resembling a tricornered hat, pinching corners together and leaving filling exposed. (Pinch dough tightly enough so seams are no longer visible and sides are taut enough to prevent cookies from leaking filling as they bake.)

Bake hamantaschen in middle of oven 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden. Cool hamantaschen on baking sheet 5 minutes and transfer to racks to cool completely. Make more hamantaschen with remaining dough and filling in same manner. Hamantaschen keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days.