Recipe: Joyce’s Mandel Bread/Mandelbrot

“Mandel bread is great with coffee, tea, or dipped in chocolate, ice cream, or whipped cream. My friends call it ‘Jewish biscotti,’ but my husband calls it, ‘crack,’ because he can’t stop eating it!

This recipe, modified by me, appeared in my mother, Joyce Goldenberg’s, cookbook, ‘Savor – Recipes to Celebrate Life,’ which was published to benefit Covenant Hospice of Pensacola, Fla.”

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
3 jumbo eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients with a spoon. Add melted butter and eggs and mix by hand. Add vanilla flavoring and nuts (if using).
Spray 4 metal ice cube trays (without the dividers) with nonstick cooking spray. Put 1/4 of the dough in each pan and smooth evenly.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean and the cake is slightly brown. Let cool a bit then slice into thin uniform slices in the pan. A serrated knife works best.
Lay slices on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake another 5-8 minutes and then turn slices over. Bake again until slices are brown and dry. Watch closely as slices can easily burn.
When done, remove from the oven and cool. Can be stored in metal cookie tins or plastic freezer bags. Freezes well but the slices are fragile.