Biscotti vs Mandelbröt Faceoff

biscotti is smaller in the back, mandelbrot is in the front

Sunday we were going to go visit my husband’s aunt who is in ill health so I wanted to bring something to the house. I knew there would be lots of family and friends in and out of there for some time to come and it would be nice to bring some food to have around. I thought biscotti would be good because it’s something you can eat anytime of the day. So I asked around on Twitter and my friends came through again. Kristin gave me a “tried and true biscotti recipe she uses” so of course, if it’s good enough for Kristin, it’s good enough for me!

 

As I was pondering ingredients, it also hit me that I had a Mandelbröt recipe that my grandmother passed down to me. Hmm. What’s the difference between Mandelbröt and Biscotti, I wondered. They’re made pretty much the same. So I decided to make both and see for myself. I could have just read the recipes and compared, but I wanted to see the end result as well. Sorry Grandma Jean, I did modify the recipe a bit. I substituted almond extract for vanilla extract and added some dried cranberries and chopped almonds for fun. I love the flavor of almond. 

After I baked these I had to help my husband install new bathroom faucets. I grabbed my camera to take a picture of the finished products and he was telling me to “drop the camera, it’s not important, we have to finish the faucet installation”. I said “I have to take a picture so I can blog it”. He asked, “Why? Because if you don’t blog it, it didn’t happen?” Ah, now he’s starting to understand…..

Oh, so how did they taste? They were both delicious. The  Mandelbröt is drier and better with say milk or coffee. Neither are too sweet. 

The main difference in the ingredients between the two is that Mandelbröt does not have butter, whereas biscotti does. So Mandelbröt seems to come out denser. Here is my Grandma Jean’s Mandelbröt recipe. Get creative. Add cranberries, chocolate chips, change the nuts; maybe pecans, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, change the extract; coconut, lemon, add 1 T. of lemon peel.

Mandelbröt

3 eggs

¾ c. sugar

¾ c. oil

1 t. baking powder

2 ½ c. flour

¼ t. salt

1 t. vanilla or almond extract

½ c. chopped almonds

Beat eggs and sugar together until lemon colored. Add oil. Blend. Add baking powder, flour and salt. Blend together. Add vanilla and chopped almonds. Blend well into soft dough. With floured hands, shape dough into 2 long loaves about 3 inches wide and 1 inch high.

Place on parchment paper on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. Remove from oven, cut with serrated knife into ½ inch slices and return to oven to toast for 10 min.

Makes 3 dozen slices