What to do with Leftover Hamentashen Dough? Cookies with Caramel Pear Preserves

Confession: I tend to hoard things. Those things include art supplies, cards, shoes, clothes (that no longer fit), people (for whom I've lost that warm and fuzzy feeling) and food!

My pantry is filled with items that I haven't used for over a year, and my freezer holds things such as chicken, pizza dough, and sorbet that I may or may not ever consume.

I need to stop hoarding.

I really must.

But it's hard. I'm sure many of you can relate.

A few weeks ago, I took a tiny little step toward the goal of dehoarding, and it was a very sweet step!

Last year, almost one year ago in fact, I made hamentashen filled with fig preserves. They were delicious, but required a ton of work. So much work, in fact, that I ended up freezing half of the dough to deal with later.

The "later" finally arrived!

Here is the hamentashen dough!

Allow the dough to defrost in your refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about one-quarter inch in thickness. Then, using a ravioli cutter, cut out the shapes. Of course you can use whichever cutting utensil you desire: biscuit cutter, ♥-shaped cutter, or even a plain glass. I love the ridges the ravioli cutter makes.

Using a fork, make a few indentations in the dough, but don't pierce all the way through.

Then, you'll need a pretty thick jam to fill these cookies. Lucky for me, I had Caramel Pear Preserves from my friend Cecilia. If you are not lucky enough to have Cecilia as a friend, you can use store-bought preserves or Nutella.

But first, you'll have to bake the cookies. Mine took about 18 minutes. You want them to be a bit brown on the edges. It's best to bake these cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Don't worry about leaving too much space in between: the cookies don't really spread out. Allow the cookies to cool completely before moving onto the next step.

Next, it's time to spread the preserves on half of the cookies and then top with the remaining cookies. Seriously, how simple is that? Get your kids to help out!

All done!

Beauty shot:

These cookies are crispy and sweet. Store them in a tightly sealed container for a few days...but most likely they'll be gone before then.

Before you leave, please head out and vote for my lamb recipe! Thank you.