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Best Hamantash in London

“A triangular pocket biscuit folded to resemble Haman's ears, filled with poppy seed, jam, or anything sweet.”

Hamantash

What the real thing tastes like

A hamantash (pl.: hamantashen; also spelled hamantasch, hamantaschen; Yiddish: המן־טאַש homentash, pl.: המן־טאַשן homentashn, 'Haman pockets') is an Ashkenazi Jewish triangular filled-pocket biscuit associated with the Jewish holiday of Purim. The name refers to Haman, the villain in the Purim story. In Hebrew, hamantashen are also known as אוזני המן (oznei Haman), meaning "Haman's ears". "Haman's ears" also refers to a Sephardic Purim biscuit, "Orejas de Haman", thought to originate in Spain and Italy, that is made by frying twisted or rolled strips of dough. Traditionally, the dough for hamantashen was made with yeast. With the invention of baking powder during the 1840s and its wide adoption during the first half of the twentieth century, baking powder supplanted yeast, and hamantashen dough became a cookie rather than bread dough. To shape a hamantash, a filling is placed in the center of a circle of dough, which is then either folded in half and shaped into a triangle or the sides

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A hamantash is a three-cornered pocket of dough—crisp or tender depending on who's baking—folded around a sweet filling and eaten during Purim to remember Haman's defeat. The triangle itself is the point: it's meant to evoke Haman's ears or his pockets, depending on which Jewish tradition you follow. What started as yeast bread in the 1840s became a butter cookie when baking powder arrived, opening the door to every filling imaginable—from the austere mohn (poppy seed paste) to jam, dulce de leche, and halva.

Order it here when it has

  • deeply symbolic shape
  • versatile fillings
  • range of textures from crisp to soft
  • ancient Ashkenazi tradition

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