Preparing Mandelbrot

Continuing on with our traditional Jewish recipes, I introduced the students in the Hebrew Cooking Elective last week to mandelbrot (literally, almond bread), which is often referred to as the Jewish version of biscotti. Actually, mandelbrot has been a favorite dessert in Ashkenazi Jewish households for centuries. Almonds were a connection to the Land of Israel (the tree-shape of the original menorah was supposedly modeled after the almond tree). Although most Ashkenazi Jews were too poor to obtain almonds, there are community records from eastern European shtetls which note communal funds for almonds for special occasions.

Since our Religious School is a nut-free zone, we prepared the mandelbrot minus the mandel, substituting chocolate chips for the almonds. Considering that I used a very simple recipe, and we only had half an hour to prepare the dough for baking, the result was a great success. Most importantly, it was given top ratings by the people who matter most - the students!

There were only three new words to introduce to the students this week, as they already recognize most of the basic cooking terms and ingredients:

As I said, the recipe is very simple!

Leeshbor shloshet ha'beitzim l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola (break the 3 eggs into the large bowl)

V'az l'hoseef et ha'sookar, shemen, v'vaneel (and then add the sugar, oil, and vanilla)

L'havreesh et ha'kol b'yachad (whisk it all together)

Achshav l'hoseef et ha'kemach v'avkat afeeya (Now add the flour and baking powder)

V'az l'hoseef et ha'shokolad, v'larbev et ha'kol eem ha'yadayeem (and then add the chocolate, and stir everything with the hands)

L'haseer et ha'batzek me'ha'yadayeem (Remove the dough from the hands - if you can!)

L'chalek et ha'batzek l'shtei chalakeem, v'az la'seem et ha'chalakeem al ha'tavneet b'tzoorat bool etz (divide the dough into two parts, and then put the pieces on the cookie sheet in the form of a log)

V'achshav ze moochan la'afot ba'tanoor (and now it's ready to bake in the oven).