Ethnic Flavor: Ramah Mandelbrot Revisited

When we went to camp, the best elective you could hope for was cooking. Two or three days a week, you got to visit the (air conditioned!) mini-kitchen and cook delicious and entirely unhealthy foods. When you left cooking with freshly baked challah, everyone wanted to be your best friend.

Although it's been 11 years since my last summer at camp, I still think especially fondly of one recipe: the one for mandelbrot. Rebecca has blogged about this treat before (see here), but when my mom was cleaning out the kitchen and wanted to get rid of all of the old camp cookbooks, I rescued one mostly with the intention of rescuing this recipe.

Mandelbrot are a magic thing-- part cookie, part biscotti, all delicious. They freeze very well and are fairly adaptable, meaning that they can be made with chocolate chips, raisins, cherries, nuts or whatever else you want. Personally, I'm partial to the chocolate chips. The recipe is below!

Camp Ramah Mandelbrot:
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 3/4 cups of flour
1 bag chocolate chips
cinnamon sugar

Beat the eggs together with sugar and oil. Add other ingredients except chocolate chips and mix well. Add the chocolate. Create two-three logs and put them on a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Cut the loaves on the diagonal immediately upon removing from the oven. Turn off the oven and return them to the oven for a few minutes.

Brownie? Biscotti? Cookie? Delicious!

Let my recounting of New Year's Shabbat continue. As part of the dessert platter (see here for more on that), I wanted to do a twist on the chocolate white chocolate chip cookies that are always very popular. Sure enough, opening up my new Kosher by Design cookbook, there was a biscotti version of those delicious cookies, so I decided to give them a spin.

I definitely endorse the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Sticks. They are super easy to make and they have a texture that is brownie-like without the same degree of density and richness. I made them with the white chocolate chips, which I thought was a nice balance of sweetness, but those who like intense chocolate would probably like them even better with regular chocolate chips. Just two pieces of advice: First, these burn around the edges pretty easily, so watch them carefully. Second, don't make the logs wider than 4 inches, because otherwise they fall apart when you cut them. Follow this advice and you'll end up with a delicious treat!

1 1/2cups flour
3/4cup dutch cocoa
1 tsp b. soda
1/2tsp fine sea salt
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup white choc or c. chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350
Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside
Mix oil,sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg
Stir in half cocoa mix until dough forms. Stir in rest of cocoa mixture, knead dough with both hands for one minute. Mix in c.chips & walnuts. Use hands to knead them in dough.
Transform dough into two logs 3-4inches wide
Bake for 25min

A Twice-Baked Biscuit

My good friend Rocio is in Bologna for the semester. We miss her a lot and we like to have parties. Therefore, we decided to celebrate her birthday, even though she wouldn't be here to share in the festivities. Oh well. (Note: this was back in September, but I just got the photos off of my friend's camera now, so you willl have to deal.)

I decided to make one treat pertaining to her current residence in Italy, and another honoring her Mexican-American heritage. The Mexican-American heritage treat came out a big soggy mess not worthy of this illustrious blog, but the biscotti was great! I had never made it before (well, sort of — my people call it mandel bread) and it's not my favorite, but I couldn't think of any other Italian sweets, so biscotti it was.

I ran into my friend Mike on the Main Green the day I was to bake it. He's also going to Bologna second semester, and we had the following conversation:

Sarah: I'm making biscotti today! I've never made it, and I don't know anything about it except that you're supposed to bake it twice.
Mike: Yeah, "biscotti" is actually Italian for "twice-baked."
Sarah: Oh really? I always thought it mean "biscuit."
Mike: Yeah, no... (backs away slowly lest my ignorance infect him.)

So, armed with my hard-won biscotti knowledge, I embarked on what was, to be honest, a fairly straightforward endeavor. I picked a chocolate biscotti recipe (from Dorie, natch), since the Mexican cake was non-chocolate. The only thing I didn't do in the recipe was stand up the biscotti like little soldiers, because they didn't have flat ends, but I don't mind because I prefer biscotti that's not too hard and in laying them down flat, only one side got crispy. After the disaster that was the Mexican cake, I was glad these turned out so well. A lot of people who, like me, are not wild biscotti enthusiasts said that they were delicious and ate them all up before the party was through!

Chocolate Biscotti Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant coffee or instant espresso powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar (I always use a bit less, more like 3/4)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped almonds (or hazelnuts - next time)
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, coffee powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 2 minutes until light. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs and vanilla; beat for another 2 minutes. Decrease the speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until a dough forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the chopped nuts and chocolate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead a few times just to incorporate any dry ingredients that didn't get mixed in before. Divide into two portions; on the baking sheet, shape each portion into a 12 x 2 inch log. Dust the tops with a little sugar. Bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the sheet from the oven and let it cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Then, with a very sharp, serrated knife, slice the logs into about 3/4 - 1 inch slices and leave the slices standing up on the baking sheet. Return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes of baking.

Transfer biscotti to a rack to cool.