Strawberry Jam Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen are one of my favorite parts of Purim, second only to dressing up. Each year, I practically consume my weight’s worth of these cookies and although I’ll eat pretty much any type, my favorite is strawberry jam.
This year, for the first time, I made my own to give to friends. I added vanilla bean seeds to the cookie dough for flavor and used a sweet and fruity jam made with organic wild strawberries for filling them.
The cookies came out jammy and soft, with the perfect shortbread-like consistency. I can’t wait to give these to my friends and, more importantly, sneak a few for myself.

• 1/2 cup finely ground almonds
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• ¾ teaspoon table salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten with water
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean seeds
• 2 cups strawberry jam

1. Mix ground almonds, flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, work butter into flour until it resembles cornmeal. Add the egg and vanilla bean seeds and combine the dough with a wooden spoon.
2. Turn dough out onto counter, and knead until mixture is uniform. Divide into quarters.
3. Place one quarter of the dough on a well-floured counter, and flour the top of it generously as well.
4. Roll the dough to a 1/4-inch thickness, and cut out circles with a 2 inch round cookie cutter.
5. Brush circles with egg mixture. This helps ensure that the cookies don’t open up at the seams in the oven.
6. Dollop 1 teaspoon of the strawberry jam in the center of each circle. Fold edges up in three places to form a triangular cookie and gently pinch seams together to form corners.
7. Transfer cookies to a baking sheet, and place entire tray in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking. Repeat with the remaining dough.
8. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake cookies for 15 to 17 minutes, until golden at edges. Transfer to racks to cool.