Best Cream Cheese Hamantaschen Recipes

SWEET DANISH HAMANTASCHEN WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING & POPPYS

Steps:

• To Prepare Filling: Beat together cream cheese, honey and sugar. Add egg, vanilla, salt, and orange zest. Mix until cohesive.
• To Prepare Poppy Seed Streusel: Beat all ingredients on low speed until the mixture crumbles. Refrigerate until ready to use.
• To Prepare Dough: In a mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients. Add cold, cubed butter with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for about 3 minutes or until mixture resembles cornmeal. Add all wet ingredients and mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until dough forms a batter.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let set in a refrigerator overnight. After 24 hours remove dough from bowl and place on a well-floured surface. Flour the top of the dough and roll into a 12X4" rectangle. With the rectangle horizontal to you fold the right third of the dough over the left creating a letter fold. Wrap in plastic wrap and return to refrigerator to rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the letter fold technique two more times (alternating left, then right).After the third turn is complete let rest in refrigerator for 30 more minutes. Remove dough from refrigerator and place dough on well-floured surface and roll out to 1/4" thick, keeping it as close to a square as possible.
• Cut the Danish into 3" squares and place about 1 tablespoon of filling (filling recipe below) into the center of the square. Sprinkle the streusel (streusel recipe below) on top and bring corners into the center forming a pouch.
• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Brush dough with egg whites and sprinkle with more streusel. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and dust with powder sugar.

CREAM CHEESE HAMANTASCHEN

Steps:

• In a bowl with a pastry blender or in a food processor blend or pulse flour, sugar, and salt to combine and add butter and cream cheese, blending or pulsing until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl stir together yolk and vanilla and add to flour mixture, blending or pulsing just until mixture begins to come together (do not overmix). Gather dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
• Preheat oven to 375° F.
• Halve dough. On a lightly floured cool surface knead half of dough (keeping other half wrapped and chilled) 2 or 3 times to make it less crumbly. Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick and with a 3-inch cutter cut out as many rounds as possible. Transfer rounds with a metal spatula to a large baking sheet, arranging about 1/2 inch apart. Reroll scraps and cut out more rounds. Put 1 teaspoon filling in center of each round and fold up edges to form triangular cookies resembling a tricornered hat, pinching corners together and leaving filling exposed. (Pinch dough tightly enough so seams are no longer visible and sides are taut enough to prevent cookies from leaking filling as they bake.)
• Bake hamantaschen in middle of oven 20 minutes, or until pale golden. Cool hamantaschen on baking sheet 5 minutes and transfer to racks to cool completely. Make more hamantaschen with remaining dough and filling in same manner. Hamantaschen keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days.