A Dulce de Leche Hamantaschen Recipe for the Next Generation

Shared by Mia Zimman
Recipe Roots: Petaluma, California

As Mia Zimman prepares to celebrate Purim this year with her daughter Luna and husband Alejandro, she will fold delicate hamantaschen dough into a triangle around dulce de leche. The caramel-like spread has been a part of Alejandro’s family table for over 100 years. 

In the early 1900s, around the time of the Russo-Japanese war, his great-grandparents left Ukraine. There were two boats departing, one for New York and the other for Buenos Aires, explains Mia. By chance, they boarded the boat for Argentina where they joined a fast-growing Jewish community.

Alejandro with his grandmother in Buenos Aires in the 1980s.

Two generations later, with growing political unrest in Argentina and a coup in 1976, half of Alejandro’s family moved to Madrid. He was little when they arrived in Spain, but still remembers relatives coming to visit with a tin of dulce de leche in their suitcases. “They would always have family meetings together and talk for hours,” Mia explains, and snack on pastries like alfajores, a signature sandwich cookie from South America made with dulce de leche. 

The cookies have remained an important part of Alejandro’s family life. In California where he and Mia now live with their two-year-old daughter, the cookies are served at every family gathering and birthday celebration. Last Purim, Mia, who grew up in an Ashkenazi American home, decided to create a new tradition for family, tucking dulce de leche into hamantaschen and adding cornstarch to the dough to give it the crumbly texture of alfajores. The recipe, she says, brings together their daughter’s identities. “She’s Latina, Jewish, American — she’s got so many cultural identities,” Mia notes. “It just feels really good to put together a few different pieces into one.”

Dulce de Leche Hamantaschen

Makes: About 30 cookies
Total Time: 25 minutes active + 3 hours and 45 minutes inactive

Ingredients
For the dough:
2 ½ cups + 3 teaspoons all-purpose flour
½ cup + 2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
⅔ cup butter room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon

For the dulce de leche filling:
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For garnish:
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut 

Preparation 

1. Make the dulce de leche: Remove and discard the labels from the can of sweetened condensed milk. Place the can into a large pot, laying the can on its side. Fill the pot with enough water to completely cover the can and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, lower the heat to medium-low and cook the can of sweetened condensed milk on a simmer for  3 ½ hours. Add water if necessary, so that the can is completely submerged in water during cooking. Use tongs to carefully remove the can from the hot water and set it aside to cool down. Use a can opener to open the can and the condensed milk should have turned into caramelized dulce de leche. Scoop out the dulce de leche into a mixing bowl. Add the salt and vanilla extract, and whisk to combine thoroughly. Set aside.

2. Make the dough: Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside. Add the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix the butter and sugar at medium speed until it is light in color and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and lemon zest into the bowl. Mix on low to medium low speed until combined. Add the flour mixture into the bowl with wet ingredients and beat until the dough comes together into a ball, about 1 minute. Place the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, make it into a ball, then press it with your hands into a disk shape. Wrap the dough tightly and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Shape and fill the hamantaschen: Transfer the dough from the refrigerator and discard the plastic wrap. Roll out the dough gently and on a lightly floured surface into a large circle that is  ¼ inch thick. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter to cut out as many circles as possible. Remove the scraps of dough and set aside. Place a teaspoon of dulce de leche filling in the center of each circle of dough. Dip a finger into water and rub it around the border edge of the circles of dough. Pinch 3 edges of the circle of dough together creating three distinct points. Pinch the corners tightly, and up the sides very tightly, enclosing the filling. Repeat filling and shaping the remaining cookies. Re-roll the dough scraps and repeat the cookie shaping and filling process.

5. Bake the hamantaschen: Place the cookies onto the baking sheets about 1-2 inches apart. If you can, place the baking sheets with the cookies in the freezer for 15 minutes. This will help the cookies hold their shape. Transfer the cookies into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown. Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately sprinkle the cookies with the shredded coconut. 

6. Serve the hamantaschen at room temperature alongside a cocktail or an espresso cortado.