Reviving a Yeasted Hamantaschen Recipe Nearly Lost to the Soviet Era

Photos by Armanda Rafael, Food and Prop Styling by Mariana Velasquez.

Shared by Svetlana and Maria Geyman
Recipe Roots: Kyiv, Ukraine > East Brunswick, NJ and Brooklyn, NY

Svetlana Geyman’s childhood in Kyiv in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s was quietly laced with Jewish traditions. Her grandfather would pray secretly at the one temple in the city, and holidays were celebrated privately at home. Svetlana remembers her mom going to the temple before Passover to pick up matzo, which she carried home in a pillowcase — perhaps to conceal it, Svetlana says, though no one is certain why. 

When Svetlana was 10 years old, her grandmother Perel, known in the family as Baba Pola, came to live with Svetlana and her parents. “She cooked for every holiday,” Svetlana says. There was matzo ball soup for Passover and honey bread for Rosh Hashanah. For Purim, Perel made poppy seed hamantaschen with a special yeasted dough. Some of the cookies were enjoyed in their home with tea, while others were given out discreetly to neighbors, relatives, and other Jewish friends. “We were very private,” Svetlana says. “We did not advertise [that we were Jewish].” 

Svetlana would help her grandmother with the baking, hearing stories of Purim in her grandmother’s hometown of Ruzhyn, a few hours from Kyiv. “[My] grandma always used to say that when she was little when they [were growing] up in Ruzhyn, adults will give them a little bit of money,” she says. “I know here people buy presents for Purim or they make costumes. I never heard about it in the Soviet Union.” 

Maria (left) with her great grandmother (center), and mother (right) in Brooklyn, December 1991.

Maria, Svetlana’s daughter and Perel’s great-granddaughter adds: “A lot of the Jewish traditions were a little lost, just because of the political climate. And, so, my great-grandmother’s generation was the last one to do the traditions and celebrate the holidays.” The family hamantaschen recipe was nearly one of the things that was lost to the era. 

Maria and her parents moved to the U.S. in 1989 and Perel followed two years later. Already in her 80s, she no longer baked hamantaschen. In Brooklyn, where the family lived, food became the marker of Jewish holidays, says Maria. Her mom would set out apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah and at Purim, she would buy poppyseed or apricot hamantaschen. 

This winter, for the first time, Svetlana recreated her grandmother’s hamantaschen, serving them alongside her grandmother’s tea set. Tea looms large in the family. “We drink tea three times a day,” says Maria, who founded the artisanal company Masha Tea. “The actual practice of drinking black tea has always been part of my life.” 

Like her mother, Maria plans to make the hamantaschen recipe for Purim this year. The recipe’s revival comes at a poignant moment in the family. Svetlana’s mother recently passed away from COVID-19. Maria adds: “I can tell that it’s just really good for my mom to look back and have all of these positive memories.”

Poppy Seed Hamantaschen

Makes: About 15 cookies
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients
For the dough:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 packet (2 ¼ teaspoons) instant yeast
¼ cup sugar 
1 egg
¼ cup lukewarm water
¼ cup sunflower oil
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
¼ teaspoon kosher salt 

For the filling:
¼ cup ground poppyseeds 
¼ cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water
For egg wash:
3 egg yolks
½ teaspoon honey

Preparation
1. Make the dough: place the flour, yeast and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Mix at a low speed for a few seconds to combine everything. Add the egg and water and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes until combined. Add the oil, lemon zest (if using) and salt and mix on medium speed until a smooth dough comes together, about 6-9 minutes. Use your hands to form the dough into a ball and place the dough into a large greased mixing bowl. Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm place for about 1 hour. The dough will puff up a bit after one hour but it will not rise significantly. 

2. In the meanwhile make the filling: place the ground poppy seeds, sugar and lemon zest into a bowl. Stir to combine. Pour the boiling water into the bowl and mix until the sugar dissolves and the poppyseed filling is a thick paste like consistency. Add more boiling water by the teaspoon if necessary. 

3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

4. Make the egg wash: Place the egg yolks into a small bowl and whisk well with the honey.  

5. Once the dough has proofed, transfer it onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough into a large circle that is about ¼ inch thick.  Use a 3 inch round cookie cutter or glass cup to cut as many circles as you can into the dough. Pull the dough scraps off of the dough and set aside. Place about 1 teaspoon of the poppy seed filling into the center of each circle of dough. Brush the edges of the circles with a bit of water. Roll up 3 edges of the circle to form a triangular shape and pinch the edges together to seal the cookies. Use the dough scraps to roll, fill and shape more hamantaschen. Transfer the cookies onto a few parchment lined baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie. Brush the tops of the cookies with egg wash.

6. Transfer the cookies into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are baked and golden brown. 

7. Let the cookies cool until they are at room temperature, about 30 minutes, and serve.