Mandelbread: It’s Fun to be Jewish
Mandelbread, the homely Jewish sister of elegant biscotti, was a gamble to make with an 8-year-old girl. Piper’s palate has been informed by pink overly frosted girlie-girl cupcakes from her favorite London bake shop, chocolate chunk supermarket cookies the size of her head, and stale Girl Scout cookies.
Nonetheless, these dipping cookies with the alluring texture of dry gravel were the perfect excuse for a tiny dose of Judaism on Rosh Hashanah, 2020. The recipe’s lineage was superb. It came from a Jewish grandma named Marge who migrated from Queens to Miami Beach, circa 1980. Piper looked skeptical back in September when I explained that the current holiday celebrated the Jewish New Year, but she humored me by declaring that she knows a girl who is “really Jewish”. In other words, unlike Piper, this little girl has two parents who are Jewish. Not only that, the girl’s family drinks wine! “Excellent,” I said, “It’s fun to be Jewish!”
I met the wondrous knife on a recent visit to Texas.
Piper not only did most of the work herself, including turning over the hot cookies with her fingertips, she showed off her snazzy new chef’s knife when chopping the walnuts. It’s like a medium-sized chef’s knife with a bright red molded-plastic handle and, most ingeniously, a round hole cut-out for her small thumb to cozily sit in. Kudos to new product designers who dream up seemingly useless gadgets!
Zoom is perfect for showing close-ups of technique--if you don’t mind getting some flour on your keyboard. The recipe called for finely chopped nuts, so her big walnut chunks needed further chopping to about 1/4 inch. These tiny nut bits don’t call attention to themselves, they just disappear in the batter, adding some interesting texture without shouting “nuts” to cranky children who can’t bear the thought of ingesting something as odd as a nut. Kids with nut allergies, of course, are another story.
Did I forget to say how easy these cookies are? Totally made by hand, no fancy equipment, all the fun of making a dough without the anxiety of handling a delicate pastry dough. I turn to Mandelbread when I am short of time and just need to stay calm, which pretty much describes always during Covid.
Piper demystified the humble mandelbread perfectly: “They are crispy, chocolatey, chippy cookies. Even my brother liked them!” Their life span was two days!
Thanks to Marge and Iris for the stellar recipe!
RECIPE
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (Yes, that much.)
2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
¼ cup finely chopped walnuts
¼ tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet.
In a large bowl, whisk together oil and sugar. Whisk in eggs, vanilla and chocolate chips. This is a thick batter. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, walnuts and salt. Add flour mixture to chip mixture and stir until evenly combined and flour disappears.
Dump dough on well-floured board and gently knead into a circle. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Shape each by hand into a small loaf, about 3 x 5 in. Transfer to a coated cookie pan and bake until set and slightly golden along edges, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove, leaving oven on, and let cool on sheet for 10 minutes.
Transfer warm loaves to cutting board and cut straight across the width with a serrated blade into ½ in slices. Return cookies to baking sheet, cut-side-up, and bake an additional 5 minutes. Turn over and bake the other side 5 minutes longer. Let cool or dunk immediately in an ice cold glass of milk. Preferably chocolate.
