Mandelbread!

So Passover has already passed over us, but it's not too late to post my grandmother's recipe for the very best part of Passover: Mandelbread!! Macaroons are a close second, and my mom makes some delish chocolate ones.

The magic of Mandelbread is that it's made without flour or any leavening agents.  Here are the ingredients:

1-3/4 to 2 c. white sugar
8 oz. (2 sticks) margarine
6 eggs
2-3/4 c. Passover cake meal (we used Streit's)
1/4 tbsp. salt
3/4 c. potato starch (you can use Streit's or Bob's Red Mill - look in the gluten free section of your supermarket)
1 c. chopped walnuts
3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
Optional: vanilla sugar and cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and butter a large cookie sheet.  This is a recipe that is easiest to put together when you have a good electric mixer.  My grandmother used to do this by hand before my grandfather got her a KitchenAid mixer at a garage sale and she has never looked back!  Start by creaming together the margarine and sugar.

Gradually crack in the eggs, and spoon in the cake meal, salt, and potato starch.  Let it continue mixing for at least 5-10 minutes.  The dough will become significantly thicker very quickly.  The KitchenAid engine was working pretty hard at this point.  

Toss in the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.  Once it's fully mixed, shut off your machine.  The dough will look extremely thick but it's still not quite strong enough to stand on its own.  You need to spoon it onto your baking sheet.  We had enough dough for 2 loaves.  

With wet hands (cold tap water!), shape these into neat loaves.  Ours weren't perfectly symmetrical, but that's ok.

Before baking, you should sprinkle the loaves with a bit of sugar.  My grandmother's preference is vanilla sugar, but regular white sugar is also fine.  You can buy packets of it in most grocery stores that stock Central and Eastern European products.  You can also make your own by tossing some vanilla beans into a jar with confectioner's sugar for a few weeks (I have yet to try this).  My grandmother informs me that a little cinnamon on top is popular as well, but she absolutely hates cinnamon so I'll leave that up to you!  Bake it at 350 for about 45 min.  They will be golden around the bottom edges and more than slightly cracked on top when they're ready.  

You should slice them when the loaves have cooled slightly, but are still warm from the oven.  The slices should be 3/4 to 1 inch thick.  

They are absolutely delicious and crumbly and one of the most delightful parts of Passover (aside from the brisket of the seder itself!) and the best part is, you get to eat them all 8 days!  Plus whenever else you feel like baking them, which should be often.  Mmmmm....already looking forward to next Passover!