I've been checking out recipes for mandelbrot across the vast topography of the Internet, as well as consulting my not-inconsiderable cookbook collection, and I am somewhat surprised by the variety of recipes for this simple cookie. Ultimately, though, it seems to come down to sugar, oil, eggs, flour, and a flavoring extract. That's it. The rest is all lily-gilding as far as I am concerned. That's not to say I haven't baked my share of gilded lilies, chock-full of chips, nuts, and every dried fruit known to man, but when it comes to authentic, I just have to say no.
I finally found two likely candidates on the Internet, compared them with a critical eye, observed the interesting differences in the proportions of essential ingredients, and then pretended I was in an old-style Chinese restaurant, choosing two from column A and one from column B. This is an experiment, and as such, I cannot predict the outcome. Update: as expected, I had to tweak and fiddle, both with amounts and with methodology. I am quite satisfied with the result, and hope you enjoy it as well.
Inspiration Nation 1972 Mandelbrot
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup corn or canola oil
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest (if using the dried zest, also add 1/4 teaspoon pure orange extract)
2 teaspoons almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons half and half and sugar for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a silpat or baking parchment.
First get your dry ingredients together. Sift together the flour with the baking powder and set aside. Using a mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is thick and light. On low, mix in the oil, the orange juice, orange zest, orange extract if using, and the almond extract until well combined. Now add in the flour-baking powder mixture in thirds, mixing well after each addition.
Separate one-quarter of the dough, put it into a bowl, and stir the cocoa and cinnamon into it, using your hands to knead so that the dough is a uniform color.
At this point, you will notice that the cocoa dough is fairly stiff, but the vanilla dough is more the consistency of a batter. Never fear, here is how you do it: with a regular ice cream scoop, place two separate lines of four scoops of vanilla dough, leaving some vanilla dough unused. Then with a smaller scoop, divide the cocoa dough in a line on top of the vanilla dough. Also with the smaller scoop, divide the remaining vanilla dough on top of the cocoa.
Now flour your hands and gently work the vanilla dough over and around the cocoa, flattening slightly and shaping the edges and ends into a loaf shape. Some of the cocoa dough will peak through, that's fine. Brush the tops of each loaf with half and half, and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and cut the rolls into 1/2 inch slices while still hot. Spread the slices on the silpat and bake for five more minutes. Remove from pan and place on wire racks to cool.
Incidentally, I just remembered that my brother's mother-in-law did not slice and bake the finished mandelbrot loaves; instead she presented a whole mandelbrot loaf which I could slice as I wished, to eat untoasted. Try it both ways and see which you prefer. To biscotti (double bake) or not biscotti ... that is the question. Well, not for me, I'm leaving it whole and untoasted.
As Mo Rocca says, "the result is ... deliciousness."
The other recipe for today is tried and true, and that is Maida Heatter's recipe for rugelach. The link will take you to the New York Times article from 1988. Follow her recipe and you can't go wrong. My adaptation is below:
Inspiration Nation Rugelach for the 21st Century
1/2 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 pound cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (I stir the flour with a whisk before measuring; that's all the sifting you need)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup currants or raisins (if using raisins, chop them into smaller pieces)
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
2 tablespoons cream or half and half or milk
Prepare the pastry the night before you plan to bake the rugelach. To make the pastry, put the butter and cream cheese into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a chopping blade. Pulse the mixture until combined but not soupy. Add the flour and pulse until a ball starts to form. Spin the machine two or three times, then remove the dough. It will be extremely sticky, so dust your hands with some flour to make handling it easier.
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board. Flour your hands and gather the dough into a ball. Divide this into four equal pieces, then form four discs. Wrap each piece in waxed paper. Refrigerate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a silpat or a piece of baking parchment.
Combine the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger for the filling and set aside.
"The spice must flow."
Place one ball of dough between two pieces of waxed paper. Begin rolling the dough, working around to keep the circle reasonably even. You can move the dough around by moving the waxed paper clockwise. Do not let the dough become warm. If it becomes sticky, remove the top piece of waxed paper, spinkle over some flour on both sides, then replace the waxed paper and continue rolling, turning the dough over occasionally to roll both sides. You are working towards a circle about 9 inches in diameter. Don't worry about a slighly uneven edge.
Using a pastry brush or your fingers, brush the dough with a tablespoon of the melted butter. Sprinkle the dough all over with one-fourth (a scant 1/4 cup) of the sugar-spice mixture. Sprinkle with one-fourth of the currants or raisins and one-fourth of the pecans. Roll the rolling pin lightly over the top to press the filling slightly into the dough.
Using a long, sharp knife, cut the circle into 12 pie-shaped wedges. Roll each wedge jellyroll fashion, rolling from the outside toward the point. Do not be dismayed if some of the filling falls out. Place each roll, point side down, about one inch apart on the lined cookie sheet.
With your fingers, brush the top of each rugelach with a little of the cream. Sprinkle with a little sugar if you like.
Place the cookie sheet on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Preferably at mid-point during the baking, you should reverse the sheets top to bottom and front to back, to insure even browning. When the rugelach are done, remove them with a metal spatula and transfer them to racks to cool.
My son now wants to make baklava ... but that is another blog post. First though, another Internet search.
Cook like there's nobody watching, and eat like it's heaven on earth.
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