Mandel Bread

I'm back!  I was in Paris all of last week and this week I have been trying to return to functioning normally.  I had plans to get these posted sooner and then work and jet-lag got in the way.  But I promise I have lots of food and pictures and inspiration from Paris, so I'll be posting a lot more.

But first, before Paris, here is a recipe I made before I left and ran out of time to post.  But it relates to Paris because it is a recipe from my aunt Leslie (my mom's twin) who came to Paris with me.  My aunt Leslie made a cookbook with our family recipes, which I love.  In keeping with my family about 50% of it is food and 50% of it is baked sweets.  This recipe is for mandel bread (basically Jewish biscotti) which is from Leslie's husband Charlie's mother Lela.  It is super easy and delicious, the criteria for any recipe.

You can just mix all the ingredients together.  Be wary of tasting the dough though, because one bite will likely lead to more and you may find you don't have any dough left to make into cookies.  This also happens to sugar cookies, mysteriously.  Although since sugar cookies are better in dough form I find this acceptable.

As I said, mandel bread is similar to biscotti.  Biscotti means twice baked.  First you bake the cookies in a big log.

Then slice them into long cookies.

And bake them again.  This drys them out and makes them very crisp, perfect for dipping in coffee.  You can vary the second cook time based on how hard you want them.

These cookies are so tasty.  I brought them into work for a meeting and my co-workers devoured them.

Mandel Bread

3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1. Beat eggs and sugar. Add oil and vanilla.
2. Add baking powder, salt and flour.  Add up to 1/2 cup more flour if dough is too wet.
3. Add sliced almonds.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
4. Grease cookie sheet.  Make two flattened rolls.
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
6. Remove and slice.
7. toast until not soft in an oven between 200 and 250 degrees for about 10 - 20 minutes.

Print this recipe