I found this recipe very easy to follow and the mandel bread came out very well. One comment I would definately reccomend using waxed paper under the bread rather than greasing the pan for convenience sake. I tweaked the recipe by changing 1 cup chocolate chips to 3/4 cup choc chips & 3/4 cup chopped pecans. It came out great! Thanks!
I decided to drop the chocolate chips and substitue lemon juice for the orange juice. i also grated a lemon rind. I used wax paper under the loaves like previously recomended and it pealed off easily. a very simple recipe with very good results. I will make this one again! Thanks! by the way Mandel=almond. I think it's funny that this recipe has no nuts in it whatsoever!
I used lemon juice lemon zest and almonds. In place of 1 cup sugar I used 1 cup of a natural sugar substitute. I used the the sweetner's conversion chart from sugar to sweetner. The Mandel bread was great and not one person who had some of it noticed the sugar switch!
As a new Shiksa wife I am new to Jewish baked goods. That in mind my husband requested Mandel bread his favorite childhood cookie. I found this recipe and gave it a shot. His preference is NO chocolate but rather the lemon juice lemon zest walnuts and candied fruit. I lined the cookie sheet with parchment paper and then just lifted the parchment paper with the rolls still on it to the rack to cool. very easy. I also read on another website that the rolls will spread and not to worry. The finished cookie should only be 1 1/2 inches tall. No extra flour was needed. PS. - oil your hands when you handle the dough.
Don't Panic! I was ready to give this recipe a poor rating because the dough was so wet and loose I thought "this just won't work". It did. My husband raved "they are better than the bakery." I wish it didn't have so much oil in it but that must be why it has such a light crumb. Be prepared to chill the dough and use only a small amount on each "loaf" because it will spread out on the pan. I followed the recommendation to use waxed paper but during the second bake i used parchment. A finished mandel bread cookie is only about an inch high but when they spread out it might be six inches long which is longer than i'd like hence my advice to make small loaves. They freeze well after baking too. And it's the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee. Variations you might try: pistachios dried cranberries dip them in chocolate like biscotti toffee chips etc.
My mother received a very similar recipe from a Jewish coworker. She makes it every year at Christmas and it is always a hit! I made a few alterations to this recipe to make it as close to my mother's as possible. I substituted the chocolate chips for chopped walnuts (although I did once use almonds instead of walnuts and it was equally as tasty) and sprinkled the top of the loaves with cinnamon and sugar mixture (the kind you buy at the store if you are in a hurry works well or you can mix 1/4 cup white sugar with 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon) before putting them in the oven the first time. I also used wax paper in lieu of the greased cookie sheet. Clean-up was a snap! My mother also suggested if you have a hard time getting it to hold, put the dough in the fridge for an hour.
Easy and delicious. I ve already shared this recipe. I cut the sugar in half because the chocolate chips are sweet and I don t like an overly sweet cookie. I just added this cookie to my Christmas baking list. Next time I will double the recipe so I will be able to keep a stash for the house.
I made this a couple weeks ago and decided to make another batch today (still in the oven). I did notice that the dough was very soft and not moldable (both times) so I spooned it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper spreading it into a long blob using a spatula. It works out fine if you bake it at least 5 minutes extra before slicing it. It didn't really taste like my aunt's but it tasted very good. It doesn't crisp up quite like hers either but I think that could be fixed by baking it longer once sliced. One thing to note is that it gets really dry but stays soft so I recommend having something to drink nearby. It ends up tasting very good and my roommates all really liked it so despite being unlike my aunt's (who for all I know might make it wrong) I'm giving it 5 stars.
I was surprised at how "soupy" the dough was; I'm used to dough that actually forms into logs. I wound up spreading the dough onto the cookie sheet baking it and cutting it into squares. Taste was good but it probably needs another cup of flour.
