Mandel Bread - a tradition

Mandel Bread.  This is basically a Jewish biscotti - but softer and maybe a bit sweeter.

My Dad and Mom used to make it when we were kids.  My sister Judy and I tried making it every so often.

It tastes great.  I have not seen it anywhere for some time.  Occasionally I would find it say in Chicago - called a Russian Tea Cake.

They have something like it here at the Stanford Shopping Center but they put jam in it and call it a walnut cookie.

I stumbled on this recipe just last week and it is really good.  It is easy to make (although we made half the amount and still ended up with 4 1/2 loaves).

David made this batch with me or I should say I assisted him.  Don't worry he washed his hands - he insisted (of course he loves to play in the water so this was a nice excuse).  You can see he is quite proud of his accomplishment.  I even let him get out of bed to see the final product.

However, he did have to wait until morning to eat it - ostensively because it was too hot.  Mostly because it was late (past his bedtime) and yes it does have some sugar in it.

So we have continued yet another tradition.  The mandel bread tradition in the Fetterman Family.  Summer shared some of it with our friends and her colleagues at Google.  They loved it.  It doesn't look very pretty as a loaf - which put one friend off until they tasted it and then back they came for more.  

No surprise here.

I linked you up with the recipe so go for it and create your own tradition.  Once you start it is really hard to...be right back, just getting one more piece of mandel bread with my tea...hard to stop, I think that is what I was saying.

Enjoy!