A popular Jewish biscotti prepared with almonds. This double baked bread loaf is popular known as Mandel Bread or Mandelbrot.
I am going to share one of our favorite recipes today. It’s the Mandelbrot (in Yiddish) or Mandel Bread (in English). The name might sound different, but it’s the nothing but simple almond bread. It is one of the famous Jewish cookies. In Yiddish, Mandel means almond and brot means bread. It’s twice baked bread, and the crunchier exterior makes it more similar to biscotti. Today I am going to share the Eggless version of the almond biscotti.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s recipe, when you pick hard BM themes, you got to keep your eyes and ears open. I came across this recipe in the Baking Challenge show of food network during Christmas. One of the chefs tried a lot of Jewish recipes, and I liked the ingredients that went in. That’s when I started to explore more about the Jewish cuisine and picked few recipes for this marathon, and one of the recipes is this Mandelbrot cookie.
I know this cookie is pretty popular in the US too, but they prepare it with chocolate chips. I wanted to try the traditional almond-based one and finally stumbled upon this recipe. But I did not follow the recipe procedure, but I did refer it to note down the base ingredients. As always I replaced eggs but this time with flax meal. It adds great texture to the recipe and also provides the sufficient binding.
Perfect Pair for Coffee and Tea
The original recipe calls for almond extract, but as I had almond butter in my pantry, I went with that. We never thought we would fall in love with these biscotti and crave for it every day. No, seriously I am not exaggerating. After Ice cream bread, this is one of the recipes that I am baking quite often these days.
The crunchy exterior with soft interior with the almonds and walnuts with the flavor of vanilla and almond makes this cookie perfect pair for coffee and tea. (My personal choice is tea) If you are planning a tea party or get together, this is a perfect make ahead dessert and believe me no one can eat just one. ;-) Between can you believe we are halfway through the marathon? 13 down and 13 more to go.
Without any further ado, here is the recap from previous marathons and then the recipe. The printable recipe is at the bottom.
- 2015 | Day 13 – No knead wheat bread
- 2016 | Day 13 – Murungai Kootu
- 2017 | Day 13 – M | Mandelbrot
Mandelbrot or Mandel Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients:
- All purpose flour – 1 cup
- Baking Powder – ½ tsp
- Baking Soda – ¼ tsp
- Sugar – ⅓ cup
Wet Ingredients:
- Canola Oil – ¼ cup
- Almond Butter – 1 tbsp
- Vanilla essence – ½ tsp
- Lime Zest – ½ tsp (optional)
- Chopped Almonds / Walnuts – ¼ cup
Egg Replacer:
- Water – 3 tbsps
- Flax Meal – 1 tbsp
Prep-Work:
- Flax Egg: Mix 1 tbsp of flax meal with 3 tbsps of water and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Sieve the APF and set aside.
- Chop the almonds and walnuts.
Steps:
- Combine the oil, almond butter, vanilla essence, lemon zest and flax egg and mix well.
- To the sieved APF, add the sugar, baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
- Now combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together.
- Bring it all together and form a dough. Add the chopped nuts and fold in.
- Now wrap this with cling film and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
- After one hour, remove the cling film and on floured surface, shape into a narrow loaf.
- Preheat oven to 350° degrees F.
- Transfer the loaf to a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Bake it at 350 deg F for 25 minutes.
- Remove it from the oven and slice diagonally while hot.
- Now increase the oven temperature to 400 deg F.
- Place slices back on the baking tray and bake for 3 minutes on each side.
Let it cool before storing in an airtight container. So far I have stored these cookies for up to 1 week.
Notes:
- You can add nuts of your choice. Also, you can replace it with chocolate chips.
- Instead of almond butter, you can use almond extract.
- Refrigerating the dough for at least one hour is important. That helps in the flavor to gel nicely.
- For this recipe, you need one egg. So you can use the egg replacer accordingly. Flax meal works well for this recipe, but store-bought egg replacer or apple sauce might work as well.
Adjust the sugar as per your preference.
📖 Recipe
Mandelbrot | Mandel Bread | Eggless Almond Biscotti
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup All purpose flour
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- ⅓ cup Sugar
Wet Ingredients
- ¼ cup Canola Oil
- 1 tbsp Almond Butter
- ½ tsp Vanilla essence
- ½ tsp Lime Zest
- ¼ cup Chopped Almonds / Walnuts
Egg Replacer
- 3 tbsps Water
- 1 tbsp Flax Meal
Instructions
Prep-Work
- Flax Egg: Mix 1 tbsp of flax meal with 3 tbsps of water and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Sieve the APF and set aside.
- Chop the almonds and walnuts.
Steps
- Combine the oil, almond butter, vanilla essence, lime zest and flax egg and mix well.
- To the sieved APF, add the sugar, baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
- Now combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together.
- Bring it all together and form a dough. Add the chopped nuts and fold in.
- Now wrap this with cling film and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
- After one hour, remove the cling film and on floured surface, shape into a narrow loaf.
- Preheat oven to 350° degrees F.
- Transfer the loaf to a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Bake it at 350 deg F for 25 minutes.
- Remove it from the oven and slice diagonally while hot.
- Now increase the oven temperature to 400 deg F.
- Place slices back on the baking tray and bake for 3 minutes on each side.
- Let it cool before storing in an airtight container. So far I have stored these cookies for up to 1 week.
Notes
- You can add nuts of your choice. Also, you can replace it with chocolate chips.
- Instead of almond butter, you can use almond extract.
- Refrigerating the dough for at least one hour is important. That helps in the flavor to gel nicely.
- For this recipe, you need one egg. So you can use the egg replacer accordingly.
- Flax meal works well for this recipe, but store-bought egg replacer or apple sauce might work as well.
- Adjust the sugar as per your preference.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75.
There is no salt in the recipe and these biscotti taste flat. I’d add a 1/4 tsp salt.
Also, how do you get them to slice with out crumbling? I have a backing sheet of crumbs.
I didn’t have a difficult time cutting it. When you cut them right out of the oven, it will be crumbly. Let it cool for 5 to 7 minutes and try cutting them.
These biscottis are so full of flavour and add-on goodness of flaxseed…Will definitely try today..
Thanks. Hope you all like it. Let me know how it turned out.
Biscotti any time of the day! What a flavorful treat this is and I love to bake this when traveling!
Thanks Sandhya
love to eat biscottis and my family loves them a lot too…yours look very tempting
Thank you.
Love almond in any bakes.. This biscotti’s are just perfect and perfect for a cup of tea :)
oh yeah very true.
Beautifully baked almond cookies Vidhya. They look so crispy, crunchy and delicious.
Thanks much.
Srividhya, wonderful choice for M and I love how these biscottis look..I am liking the fact that you are also so keening checking out dishes all the time..lol
he he Thanks Valli.
I have baked different varieties of biscotti and to this day, almond biscotti is my personal fav. These look perfect for an evening snack!
oh yeah.. love that almond flavor. Thanks Harini.
I would love to dunkin those biscotti with my tea. They looks so crispy and delicious.
:-) Thanks Sapana
The biscottis look crisp and delicious! Glad it is an eggless version….will try this asap!
Thanks Sowmya. Glad you liked it.
Wow these do look very similar to Biscotti! It’s amazing you saw this on tv and followed it up. I’ve been catching up on the great British baking show and it’s like a hands on tutorial, since most of the bakes on there are on my list currently :D
I have to see that show.. I just follow food network US.. :-) Thanks Namratha
The biscottis always remind me of our Indian rusks! Almond Biscotti looks beautifully baked ,these would be just perfect with a hot cup of tea or coffee.
Yup.. I totally agree. I thought the same thing too. Love how these foods are intertwined. Thanks Vaishali.
How delicious and crisp those almond biscottis looks. Feel like munching some with a cup of coffee or tea.
:-) I wish I could send some.