Grandma’s Mandelbrot

Dessert

Prep time: 30 minutes | Cook time: 45 minutes | Difficulty: Medium | Servings: 40-50 cookies

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup walnuts or almonds or hazelnuts
  • 1 cup sugar (200 grams turbinado sugar)
  • 2 cups flour (300 grams all-purpose flour)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla (vanilla paste)
  • 1/4 pound margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon rye or bourbon (I used bourbon)
  • Cinnamon and sugar
  • Milk (oat is preferable)
Notes

Submitted by Dr. Judith Becker, associate professor pediatrics-cardiology. Recipe is from Rose Becker.

The recipe is written as Rose Becker relayed it. The info in parentheses is my adaption after not getting the result I wanted. These could be crisp and dry like biscotti.

If using almonds in shell, boil almonds in 1 cup of water then transfer to cold water. If using walnuts or other nuts, bake whole walnuts at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or roast chosen nuts before incorporating. You can also use chocolate chips as add-ins.

Because I wanted the cinnamon and sugar taste, I brushed the exposed (top) surface of each cookie (once baked and cut) lightly with milk and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar before returning the cookies for the crisping at 375 degrees F. This alteration may cause them not to be as crisp as they would be without further coating. If given a day or two in a cookie jar, these should get crisper or harder — more like biscotti.

Directions

  • Melt margarine slowly (do not cook).
  • Mix sugar and eggs; then add in margarine
  • Sift flour and baking powder in separate bowl; then mix into eggs.
  • Add vanilla, alcohol and nuts.
  • Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight).
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Flour a surface.
  • Turn out dough and knead, adding extra flour as needed until it’s no longer sticky.
  • Roll dough into a ball and divide into 1/4s.
  • Form into oblong loaves (about 12 inches long and 3 inches wide, tapered at the ends)
  • Place on greased and floured cookie sheet (or a silpat mat or on parchment paper); brush each leaf with milk and sprinkle generously with cinnamon and sugar.
  • Keep 2 inches between loaves and edge of the pan.
  • Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
  • Take out of oven and carefully cut cookies on a slant with a sharp knife.
  • Bake 5 more minutes, turned on the side; then flip and bake another 5 minutes on the other side to crisp.