Mandel Bread (Passover)

434-mandel-bread-passover-

Ingredients:

Default

1.0 lb. Almond Paste

2.0 lb. Sugar

0.03 lb. salt

0.5 lb. Egg

1.0 lb. butter

0.75 lb. Egg

0.06 lb. Vanilla

1.0 lb. Nuts

1.25 lb. Cake Meal

0.38 lb. Potato Starch

Instructions:

Blend the paste, sugar,salt,and first eggs.

Cream in the Butter

Add remaining eggs slowly and cream.

Add Vanilla and cream more

Stir in nuts.

Sift meal and starch together, add to the other batter and mix till smooth.
****** double and triple check the weight of the cake Meal. Twice now I have either
forgotten it, or didn't put in enough. 4/22/05 I put in only a pound instead of the full
pound and a quarter. Result was acceptable, but very thin. There's also a risk that
the batter will spread off the sheet pan **************

Scale and shape

Can egg-wash tops, or brush with sugar and nuts.

Bake at 375.

Slice while warm, and separate the slices. Return to oven and bake till hard.

4/22/05 ------
Ten eggs are approximately the quantity needed
I divided the batter into two batches. Each batch fits nicely onto the large sheet pan.
To one of the batches (one sheetpan worth) I added .15# cocoa to make chocolate

4/8/06 -------
Started around 6:30, and was still baking first bake at 11:30. Now I made three batches, so it took longer, but way too late.

2 Comments: (You must be logged in to leave a comment.)

wprince said,
5 months ago
Mandel Bread (Passover)

2008 - Feel 350 is a better temperature. More control, but it will take about 50 minutes without convection. Also, seems like the internal temperature should be about 200 F.

Cutting tips: Use a sharp knife and spray with pam. Get a little slice started, pulling toward you, then on the return, slice down and through. Don't lift the knife, but slide it out, parallel to the mandel bread. This will help it stay together, You may want to protect the near side of the slice with your finger as you extract the knife.

Sheeting tips: I found that it helps to chill the dough before it goes in the oven. Seems to hold its shape better. Also, make the "loaf" the length of the pan and about 3 inches high. This will stop the slices from getting too wide.

wprince said,
about 1 year ago
Mandel Bread (Passover)

Made three batches this year:
Macadamia
Macadamia with chocolate chips
Almond
Almond, macadamia and pistacio
Almond and dried sweet cherries
Almond, cherrie and chocolate chps
Jan liked the cherrie and chocolate chip the best. Said they're her all time favorite.
I used whole blanced raw almonds. Wasn't happy with how they stuck to the batter. Also, seems like you can have too many nuts... a situation where there doesn't seem to be enough batter to hold them together.
Lsstly, I used to do the 2nd bake. This year I didn't as both Jan and Josh said they liked them a little softer...they developed body as they cooled, but didn't get rock hard like with the 2nd bake. Not sure yet how to store them.