With their familiar buttery flavor and classic triangular shape, these ice cream filled beauties offer a cool and creamy element that takes hamantaschen to a whole new level of scrumptiousness. The toasty brown sugar shell is bright and earthy with its speckles of rosemary and almond, just as the velvety fruit filling offers a lusciousness that literally melts in your mouth. <br /> <br />When I started daydreaming about creative twists for traditional hamantaschen, playing with the dough came first. Imagining a fruity filling, I created a dough to complement it: nutty almond meal alongside the flour, molasses-rich brown sugar in place of white, and speckles of fresh rosemary for a nice herbal whisper. A splash of almond extract proved to further brighten my new dough’s complex flavors. <br /> <br />I began to consider new fillings and experimented with fresh raspberries in place of jam, oozing marzipan for an amaretto-y kick, and even cheesecake-like mixtures. Still not sold, I turned to ice cream (as I do in most dilemmas) and couldn't give up on the idea of its fruity, frozen deliciousness in a nutty herbal shell. <br /> <br />It was now just a matter of how to blind-bake them. After trials with pie weights, dried beans, parchment pouches and more, I found that floured whole almonds worked best (and can be re-used to make almond meal for more hamantaschen: a delicious cycle of baking and savoring!). <br /> <br />Like an ice cream sandwich’s festive little cousin, this ice cream filled cookie has only one downfall: it can’t be eaten warm from the oven. But I really don’t think you’ll mind once you taste one.

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