Passover Mandel bread

Passover can be a really challenging holiday, especially if you are like me and really enjoy something sweet with your afternoon coffee. I found a great passover recipe for mandel bread (mandelbroit in Yiddish), a german cookie that is similar to a Biscotti. It called for so much butter, eggs, and sugar that I decided to experiment a bit. I used half the amount of butter and substituted the rest with plain yogurt. I used Splenda brown sugar instead of regular sugar, and used eggbeaters instead of eggs. Be careful when using any Splenda product--it is REALLY sweet so you have to halve what the recipe usually calls for. I also added orange zest for a citrus kick. The mandel bread came out very well, but I wish that I had left it in the oven for a little longer so that it was crunchier. You can also add walnuts or almonds if you would like. Enjoy!

Passover Mandel bread

Ingredients

1 cups Splenda brown sugar

½  cup pareve margarine

½ cup plain yogurt

6 eggs (eggbeaters)

2 ¾  cups matzo cake meal

¾  cup potato starch

½  teaspoon salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon orange zest

2 teaspoons cinnamon sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a large cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, margarine, and yogurt until smooth.

Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one.

Combine the cake meal, potato starch and salt; stir into the creamed mixture.

Mix in zest, cinnamon, and chocolate chips. The mixture will be heavy.

Form into 2 long oval loaves. Place onto the prepared baking sheet.

Sprinkle the top with a mixture of 2 teaspoons sugar and cinnamon.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center, comes out clean.

Cut longways into 2 inch pieces. Put back into the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden and crispy

xx,

Penelope Anne