Photo Credit: Saraizel Senderovits

Purim is coming, and — following our age-old tradition — we will be eating hamantaschen.

Now, while hamantaschen have not gone out of style, prune and poppy filling just may have. Today you can find hamantaschen in more flavors than Baskin-Robbins’ ice cream! If there’s a flavor you can dream of, you can make it.

Every successful hamantasch starts with a great cookie dough base. What’s so great about this one is that all it needs is a bowl and spoon. For your fillings — use your imagination! See below for a few ideas.

Caramel Cheesecake Hamantaschen

YIELDS APPROXIMATELY 25 HAMANTASCHEN

• 2 eggs
• ⅔ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2¼ cup flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 2 3-oz (85-g) pkgs J&J creamy cheese snacks (or any simple cheesecake filling)
• prepared caramel sauce

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder and mix until incorporated. Turn the dough onto your workspace and knead until nice and smooth.

Roll out dough to ⅛–¼-inch (¼–½-cm) thick. Cut out 3-inch (7½-cm) circles. Top each circle with 1 tsp of cheese snack.

To close, bring two sides together to a point at the top of the circle. Overlap the two sides slightly and pinch gently. Fold up the bottom of the circle, again overlapping at the corners and pinching shut gently.

Place the hamantasch on a lined cookie sheet and repeat until all your dough is used up.

Bake for 10–12 minutes. Remove from oven when the bottoms start to brown. Once cooled, drizzle with caramel sauce

Flavor options are endless!

Here are some to get you started:

S’mores: Fill with 1 tsp Marshmallow Fluff, a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs, and a few chocolate chips. Top with cocolate drizzle.

Apple pie: Fill with 1 tsp of apple pie filling and top with a sprinkle of streusel.

Fluffernutter: Fill with ½ tsp of Marshmallow Fluff and ½ tsp peanut butter. Top with a drizzle of chocolate.

Funfetti: Add sprinkles to your cookie dough before you roll it out. Fill with 1 tsp of Marshmallow Fluff and some more sprinkles.

Lemon meringue: Fill with 1 tsp lemon curd and top with a dollop of Marshmallow Fluff.

Lotus: Fill with 1 tsp Lotus butter and top with drizzle of melted Lotus butter and crushed Lotus cookies.

Halva: Fill with 1 tsp halva spread and top with shredded halva.

And, of course, jam — for tradition’s sake.

(Originally featured in Family Table, Issue 731)