Grandma P's MandelBread

We were not going to be able to celebrate Rosh Hashana with Jordan's family this year, but i knew it was important to him that we do something to mark the holiday.  Because Hallmark really doesnt have a 'high holidays' line in their stores, and no mythical characters show up with presents or chocolate,  the only marker i was left with was food.  (oh, darn.)  So I went on an elaborate recipe search all over the internets trying to figure out what to make.

The interesting thing i learned about Rosh Hashana is that the general gist of it is to eat sweet things, as a wish for a sweet new year.  This was a good thing to learn as holiday cooking is generally made more 'interesting' (and by interesting, i mean difficult) by my pescatarian lifestyle, but sweet is generally associated with desserts and such and desserts generally dont have meat in them.  This i could do.

After a bit of digging, i came up with a basic menu, which included honey cake.  When i ran it past Jordan, he was like, 'wtf is honey cake?' and i was like, 'its only what you are supposed to eat on rosh hashana, duh...' and he was all 'if you say so...'  So then we had one of those super-fun discussions that go 'ok if you dont want honey cake, what do you want?'  'i dont know...  no, its fine, i've just never had it before'  at which point i declared myself more jewish than him - which went over about as well as you can imagine...

so in the interest of saving the holiday (and maybe my marriage), i did more research.  and in that research, i saw that some people were making apple cake or mandelbread for dessert...  Now, i didnt know what mandelbread was, but when i mentioned it to Jordan, he was all 'i've been craving that!' and just like that, the world was now right in jordan's eyes.  so we called up his mom (ok, texted) and asked for his grandmother's recipe.*

Turns out mandelbread is basically biscotti. Except not always baked the second time the way biscotti is - and never baked the second time by Jordan's family.

Now, you may wonder why I'm posting this now, after Rosh Hashana.  You may be saying 'um, maybe i could have used this if you'd only TOLD ME SOONER...'  well, Yom Kippur is this weekend and i'm pretty sure that this mandelbread would be a welcome addition to ANY break fast table...

*turns out that Grandma P used Mom S's recipe - something Jordan only learned a couple of days ago...  but i like the title Grandma P's, so i'm going to take that liberty, ok?

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Grandma P's MandelBread
courtesy of Mom S.
click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

This is the full recipe.  We actually cut it down and only made 1/3 of the recipe (therefore one loaf) because there are only two of us and we're already fat enough...

1/3 c butter
1 c sugar
3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla
1 drop lemon juice
2 1/2 c flour

2 tsp bsking powder
1 bag chocoloate chips

sugar & cinnamon for top

***

Preheat oven to 350°

Prepare a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar.

Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix well after each.

Add the vanilla, lemon and mix well.

Combine the flour and the baking powder in a separate bowl and add the flour mixture in batches, mixing well after each addition.  (I was able to keep using the electric mixer the whole time but it does get sticky at the end...)

Add the chocolate chips and mix to combine.

Flour your hands well and divide the very wet, very sticky dough into 3 pieces.  Shape each piece into a narrow loaf and place on the parchment.

Sprinkle each loaf with cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool a bit and then slice as you would biscotti and serve.  

Note: Its a dry 'cake' - i'm told its best dipped in either milk or coffee, but i liked it just fine plain :)