Mandelbrot (), with a number of variant spellings, and called mandel bread or kamish in English-speaking countries and kamishbrot in Ukraine, is a type of

cookie A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, ...

found in

Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that was developed by the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern, Central, Western, Northern, and Southern Europe, and their descendants, particularly in the United States and other Western cou ...

and popular amongst

Eastern European Jews The expression 'Eastern European Jewry' has two meanings. Its first meaning refers to the current political spheres of the Eastern European countries and its second meaning refers to the Jewish communities in Russia and Poland. The phrase 'Easte ...

. The Yiddish word ''mandlbroyt'' literally means almond bread, a reference to its common ingredient of almonds. It is typically formed by baking a loaf which is then cut into small slabs and twice-baked in order to form a crunchy exterior. The cookies were popular in Eastern Europe among rabbis, merchants and other itinerant Jews as a staple dessert that kept well. Its precise origin is unknown, as is its historic relationship with

biscotti Biscotti (; ; en, biscuits), known also as cantucci (), are Italian almond biscuits that originated in the Tuscan city of Prato. They are twice-baked, oblong-shaped, dry, crunchy, and may be dipped in a drink, traditionally Vin Santo. Name ...

, a similar

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

cookie. It is made with oil and not butter and so is

pareve In ''kashrut'', the dietary laws of Judaism, pareve (from yi, פאַרעוו for "neutral", in Hebrew , and also parve and other variant English spellings) is a classification of edible substances that contain neither dairy nor meat ingredients. ...

and can be served as part of the

Shabbat dinner Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

. The basic ingredients are flour, sugar, eggs and oil. Additional ingredients vary between bakers, but common additions include almonds,

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a tru ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, brea ...

chocolate chips Chocolate chips or chocolate morsels are small chunks of sweetened chocolate, used as an ingredient in a number of desserts (notably chocolate chip cookies and muffins), in trail mix and less commonly in some breakfast foods such as pancakes. ...

or diced

candied fruit Candied fruit, also known as glacé fruit, is whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on the size and type o ...

. Mandelbrot is called ''kamishbrot'' in Ukraine, and the two terms are often used interchangeably in the United States.Eisenberg Joyce and Scolnic, Ellen. ''Dictionary of Jewish Words.'' Jewish Publication Society, 2006, p. 98-99.

References

External links

Recipe for Mandelbrot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandelbrot Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Jewish baked goods Almond cookies Twice-baked goods

See also

References

External links