New Yorkers are certainly familiar with non-traditional hamantaschens, the triangular pastries boasting a variety of different fillers that are consumed by Jewish folks on Purim—including this pizza-flavored variety from Breads Bakery—but it’s not often you see a hybrid of the form.
Enter Brooklyn bakery Sesame, with locations in both Flatbush (1540 Coney Island Avenue) and Boro Park (5024 13th Avenue), where patrons get to order a hamantaschen-shaped doughnut filled with frosting starting about two weeks prior to the holiday (this year, Purim falls on Tuesday, March 6) each year, when the venue starts selling them.
Ranging in price from $2.75 to $4.75, the certified-kosher treats come in a bunch of different flavors: plain, custard, jelly, Nutella, caramel and dairy cheese.
For those in-the-know, the sweets are basically a play on another traditional Jewish dessert, this one served on Channukkah: the sufganiya (basically, a stuffed doughnut). To be clear: although shaped like the triangular hamanthaschen, the delicacies are straight-up doughnuts and don’t resemble the cookie-like texture that define the former.
But that’s all for the better since we’ve got room in our stomachs for both versions of the food, of course. Sesame also bakes and sells hamantaschens in their classic form, so make sure to grab some of those while on premise as well.
A bit of Jewish history for you: the Purim dish, called “osnei Haman” in Hebrew (literal translation: ears of Haman) is connected to the villain in the story of the holiday, Haman. Although some attribute the triangular shape of the food to Haman’s pockets, which were always filled with bribe money, the general consensus is that it was his hat that inspired the form of the stuffed cookie.
Either way, you’ve got an excuse to indulge in the baked goods basically all week long.
Ex-Brit turned Manhattan resident since 2008.