Key Lime Pie Hamantaschen

I love a unique hamantaschen recipe. And I love key lime pie. Hence, the birth of Key Lime Pie Hamantaschen. What I love about this recipe, other than the taste, is that you can make all the components ahead of time so that on baking day, you are just shaping, baking, and eating. These are basically delicious key lime pie cookies that you can really enjoy any time of year.

What Are Hamataschen?

Hamantaschen are triangular shaped cookies (or pastry) that are made with a variety of different fillings. Why are they triangular? Long story short, they are traditionally made for the Jewish holiday of Purim — a joyous holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jews from an evil dude named Haman. According to legend, Haman wore a three-cornered hat. (Very fashion-forward for such a hateful man!) Why they decided to shape cookies like his hat is beyond me. All I know is that, made properly, they are delish.

Traditional hamantaschen flavors include poppy seed, prune, apricot and raspberry. I’m all for tradition, but I love to modernize these delicious cookies with a unique hamantaschen recipe.

How to Make Key Lime Pie Hamantaschen

These key lime pie cookies have three key components: graham cracker cookie dough, key lime pie filling, and white chocolate whipped ganache (although you can certainly substitute this with whipped cream or just skip it).

Graham Cracker Cookie Dough

The dough is actually super easy to make for these key lime pie cookies. You can use a mixer (hand or stand) or just mix it up by hand.

First, the ingredients:

• Flour: All purpose flour is all you need here.
• Graham Crackers: You can grind up actual graham crackers in a blender or food processor or just buy graham cracker crumbs.
• Baking Powder: Helps the cookies get a slight rise and to brown.
• Salt: Balances all the flavors.
• Sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture to the cookie dough.
• Butter: Room temperature unsalted is best. In a pinch, you can use salted and delete the salt from the recipe.
• Eggs: One large egg and one large egg yolk is what we need here.
• Milk: Just a little milk to add some moisture and help the dough bind.
• Vanilla: Adding flavor to complement the graham cracker flavor.

The graham cracker cookie dough process:

Whisk together all the dry ingredients. (Sugar is technically a wet ingredient.) Set that bowl aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar. With the butter at room temperature, you can do this by hand, with a hand mixer or a stand mixer.

Beat in the liquids. Then mix the dry ingredients in, just until fully combined.

I highly recommend chilling the dough, even just for an hour. I suggest dividing the dough in two separate packages, wrapped in plastic wrap. It is easier to work with half the dough at a time, and by dividing the dough, it will chill a little faster. You can also make the dough up to 48 hours in advance.

Key Lime Pie Filling

This is so simple to make, as it’s just a few ingredients:

• Sweetened Condensed Milk: The heart of key lime pie. Well, maybe after the key limes.
• Key Lime Juice: I have never seen key limes in my local grocery store, so I buy key lime juice. I find Nellie & Joe’s: Key West Lime Juice to work wonders in my key lime pie filling.
• Egg Yolk: The egg yolk helps the filling bind and hold together.
• Lime Zest: Just a little zest to further enhance the lime flavor. If you can’t find key limes, regular lime zest will do here.

You literally just whisk all the ingredients together and, voila! You have key lime pie filling. I like to make the filling ahead of time, cover it with plastic wrap and pop it in the refrigerator. It’s easier to spoon it into the cookie dough when it’s cold. You can make the filling up to a couple days in advance.

White Chocolate Whipped Ganache

So, this sort of gilds the lily, but it’s really easy to make. You can totally skip it, but it adds a prettiness to these Key Lime Pie Hamantaschen. You can certainly use whipped cream in its place. I like using White Chocolate Whipped Ganache here because it is more stable than just whipped cream, so it keeps its shape very well.

Here’s what you need:

• White Chocolate: Use a quality white chocolate. Your final product will only taste as good as the ingredients in it.
• Corn Syrup: Just a little will do the trick here. And the trick is to add a slight gloss to the whipped ganache.
• Heavy Cream: Don’t skimp here. You need heavy cream to get the proper consistency.
• Lime Zest: Totally optional here. If you like to enhance the lime flavor in these Key Lime Pie Hamantaschen, go for it. If you like the white chocolate whipped ganache, you can skip the zest.

Break up the white chocolate into small pieces. Add the corn syrup. Heat up the heavy cream just until it starts to bubble. If using the lime zest, toss it into the heavy cream as it heats up. Pour the cream over the chocolate, making sure it is fully immersed. Let it sit a couple minutes. Then, starting in the center with a whisk, make concentric circles and work your way towards the outer edges of the bowl. Make sure the chocolate is fully melted and incorporated. Cover the top with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours and up to a few days. For more details, check out my White Chocolate Whipped Ganache post.

How to Assemble Key Lime Pie Hamantaschen

Shaping these key lime pie cookies is not complicated. On a lightly floured surface (I like to use parchment paper and dust it with flour), roll out half of the dough to approximately ¼ to ⅛ inch thick. I highly recommend dusting the top of the dough with flour and using another piece of parchment paper over the top of the dough when you roll it out. This will prevent sticking.

Cut out circles. I recommend 2½ inch circles. Dollop a little less than 1 teaspoon of the key lime pie filling in the center. With floured fingers, join the sides together at the outer edge of the circle. Do the same in two other places to form a triangle. Make sure the seams at the edges are completely closed to prevent anything from leaking out.

Pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes, then bake them off.

Once fully cooled, whisk the white chocolate ganache until stiff peaks form. You can use a mixer, but watch it like a hawk. (Tip: Place a metal bowl and your whisk in the freezer for 15 minutes before you start whisking. Having a cold bowl and whisk will help whip the cream up faster.) You do not want to over whisk it. I prefer to use a whisk for this reason, but it can be a real workout.

Pipe the white chocolate whipped ganache in any decorative fashion. I chose to cover only part of the hamantaschen so the filling is visible. You could cover the filing completely or just pipe less.

Looking for more fun, unique hamantaschen recipes? Try these out:

• Boston Cream Pie Hamantaschen
• Blueberry Hamantaschen
• Fig Hamantaschen 
• S’Mores Brownie Hamantaschen
• Apple Cinnamon Spice Hamantaschen

Print Pin

Key Lime Pie Hamantaschen

5 from 12 votes

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 9 minutes minutes

Refrigeration time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 3 hours hours 4 minutes minutes

Servings 40 cookies

Calories 118

Graham cracker cookies filled with zesty key lime pie filling and topped with a white chocolate whipped ganache. A fun way to celebrate Purim!

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

White Chocolate Whipped Ganache:

• 150 grams heavy cream (½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons)
• 112 grams white chocolate, chopped (4 ounces)
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon lime zest (optional)

Graham Cracker Hamantaschen Dough:

• 165 grams all purpose flour (1¼ cups plus 1 Tablespoon)
• 170 grams graham cracker crumbs (2 cups)
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 113 grams unsalted butter at room temperature (8 Tablespoons. or ½ cup)
• 150 grams sugar (¾ cup)
• 1 egg at room temperature
• 1 egg yolk at room temperature
• 15 grams whole milk (1 Tablespoon)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Key Lime Pie Filling:

• 198 grams sweetened condensed milk (7 ounces)
• 60 grams key lime juice (¼ cup)
• 1 large egg yolk
• ¼ teaspoon lime zest

Instructions 

Prepare White Chocolate Ganache:

• Heat the cream, just to the point of bubbling before it boils. If using lime zest, add it to the cream while it is heating. Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl with the corn syrup. Pour the heated cream over the chocolate, making sure the chocolate is fully immersed. Allow it to sit for 2-4 minutes so the chocolate melts, but do not let it sit too long. Starting from the center of the bowl, whisk in concentric circles, working your way towards the edges of the bowl. Once the chocolate and cream are fully incorporated, cover the top with plastic wrap, directly on the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate at least 4 hours and preferably over night.

Prepare Hamantaschen Dough:

• In a bowl, whisk together the flour, graham cracker crumbs (see Notes below), baking powder, and salt. Put aside.
• In a mixer or by hand, cream the butter and sugar together for 2-3 minutes. Add the egg, the egg yolk, milk, and vanilla and beat until all the liquid ingredients are fully incorporated, approximately 2 minutes.
• With the mixer off, pour the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl over the liquid ingredients. Turn the mixer on the lowest speed and mix just until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. (Alternatively, you can mix the dry ingredients in by hand using a rubber spatula.) Do not overmix.
• Place half the dough on top of a large piece of plastic wrap. Using the plastic wrap, shape the dough into a disk, pushing down on it to thin it out. Fully cover the disk of dough in the plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours and for as long as 48 hours. Repeat with the remaining portion of the dough.
• Line 2 or 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Prepare Key Lime Pie Filling

• In a bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days.

Assemble the Hamantaschen

• Take one of the dough disks from the refrigerator and roll out in between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll the dough so that it is approximately ¼ of an inch thick. If you roll it too thin, the dough will rip as you remove it from the parchment. Using a round cookie cutter (I use a 2½ inch diameter), cut as many rounds out as you can. You may need to dip your cutter into some flour to avoid it sticking to the dough. Use a metal spatula dipped in flour to release the rounds. Gather the scraps and roll that clump of dough out and cut more rounds. Keep repeating until you have used all the dough. If at any point the dough becomes too sticky or difficult to work with, cover it in plastic wrap and let it cool in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
• Fill each round with just less than 1 teaspoon of the key lime pie filling. Do not over fill them. Lightly flour your fingertips and form each circle into triangles by folding up the rounds and pinching them tightly in three corners. (If they are not sticking together, wet your fingertip and rub it on the inside where you are trying to create the point.) You want to make sure that the seams are fully closed so that the filling does not break through the barriers while baking. Place the shaped hamantaschen on the prepared cookie sheets.
• Place the cookie sheets with the shaped hamantaschen in the freezer for 15 minutes. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
• Preheat oven to 400° F.
• Repeat steps 1 through 2 with the remaining disk of dough.
• Bake the frozen hamantaschen for 9-10 minutes until they are lightly brown around the bottom edges. Cool completely before whipping the white chocolate ganache.
• Using a mixer or a hand whisk, whisk the white chocolate ganache until stiff peaks are formed. Be careful not to over whisk. Pipe the white chocolate whipped ganache in a decorative fashion. Top with lime zest. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Notes

• For graham cracker crumbs, place graham crackers (depending on the brand, approximately 9-11 sleeves) into a blender or food processor. Blend or pulse until all crackers are broken down into crumbs.
• When whipping the white chocolate ganache, be sure to freeze your bowl and whisk first. Keeping everything cold will help whip it up faster.
• These also freeze well once baked. Defrost at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.

Author: Rob Finkelstein

Calories: 118kcal

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Jewish

Keyword: cookies, Purim

Nutrition

Calories: 118kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 58mg | Potassium: 48mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 160IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 0.4mg