Mandelbrot (cookie)

Mandelbrot

A sliced loaf of Mandelbrot

Mandelbrot (Yiddish: מאַנדעלבראָט‎), with a number of variant spellings, and called mandel bread in English-speaking countries and kamishbrot in Ukraine, is a Jewish cookie popular amongst Eastern European Jews. The Yiddish word mandelbrot 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, a similar Italian cookie. While mandelbrot and biscotti both have a crunchy exterior, mandelbrot is slightly softer than biscotti due to its higher oil and/or butter content.

Additional ingredients vary between bakers, but common additions include almonds, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate chips or diced candied fruit. Mandelbrot is called kamishbrot in Ukraine, and the two terms are often used interchangeably in the United States.