Grandma Annie’s Chocolate Chip Mandel Bread
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With a hint of almond, chocolate chips, and a satisfying crunch, my Grandma Annie’s mandel bread is pure comfort and tradition in every bite!
My Grandma Annie made the world’s best mandel bread—a twice-baked, crunchy Jewish cookie similar to biscotti. Whenever she visited, she’d step off the plane with a big smile and a cookie tin in hand, and we knew dessert was here, too! Mandel bread translates to “almond bread” in English, from the Yiddish word mandel (almond) and the German brot (bread). Despite the name, it’s more like a cookie than bread, traditionally made with almonds but sometimes with other nuts or chocolate.
Like biscotti, mandel bread is satisfyingly crunchy, but thanks to a bit more fat, it’s richer and less dry—no need to dip it in coffee, tea, or hot chocolate to enjoy it (though you can, if you like!). Most mandel bread recipes, including my grandma’s, are non-dairy and made with oil, but I use butter for a little extra flavor.
Table of Contents
“They are phenomenal! I’ve made mandel bread forever (40+ years) and this is the best recipe!”
What You’ll Need To Make Mandel Bread
- All-Purpose Flour: Provides structure to the cookies. Measure it by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off to ensure accuracy. Because this mandel bread recipe contains flour, it isn’t suitable for Passover (as flour is avoided during the holiday). A Passover-friendly version would typically swap flour for a kosher-for-Passover alternative, like matzo cake meal.
- Baking Powder: Helps the mandel bread rise.
- Cinnamon: Adds warmth and spice to the dough and the topping.
- Nutmeg: Contributes a subtle, aromatic spice to the flavor of the dough.
- Butter or Vegetable Oil: Adds moisture and richness to the dough. I prefer the flavor of butter, but if you opt for the oil for a non-dairy option, the mandel bread will still be delicious with it.
- Sugar: Sweetens the mandel bread and adds a crunchy topping.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the flavor of the dough with its aromatic richness.
- Almond Extract: Adds a hint of almond flavor for extra depth.
- Large Eggs: Bind the ingredients together and provide structure.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: Add sweet pockets of chocolate throughout the mandel bread.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Whisk to combine.
In the bowl of an electric mixer (either a stand mixer or hand mixer will work) combine the melted butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
Beat on medium speed until combined.
Add the eggs.
Add the eggs and continue beating on medium speed until thickened and pale yellow, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the dry ingredients.
Mix on low speed until just incorporated.
Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts (if using).
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill until firm, 1 to 2 hours. Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and shape the dough into 2 logs about 2 inches wide, 13 inches long, and 1 inch tall.
Place the logs on two parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until lightly golden, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back midway through. Remove the pans from the oven and place on cooling racks. Let the baked logs cool for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, reduce the oven temperature to 250°F. In a small bowl, mix together the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.
Once the logs have cooled, cut them diagonally into 3/4-inch-thick slices (I do this directly on the baking sheets, but you can transfer the logs to a cutting board, if you’d like). A serrated knife works well for this.
Flip the cookies on their sides and sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar over top. Flip the cookies over and repeat with the remaining cinnamon-sugar.
Place the pan back in the oven (be sure the temperature has reached 250°F!) and bake until golden and crisp, 40 to 45 minutes.
Make-Ahead, Freezing & Storage Instructions
After the mandel bread has cooled completely, it can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months: Shape the dough into logs, wrap each securely in plastic wrap, and place them in a sealable bag. When ready to bake, remove the logs from the freezer, thaw the dough until pliable, and then proceed with recipe. To freeze after baking: After the cookies are completely cooled, double-wrap them securely with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap. Thaw overnight on the countertop before serving.
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Grandma Annie's Chocolate Chip Mandel Bread
With a hint of almond, chocolate chips, and a satisfying crunch, my Grandma Annie’s mandel bread is pure comfort and tradition in every bite!
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off with back edge of knife
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1¼ teaspoons cinnamon, divided
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled (or 1 cup vegetable oil)
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans, walnuts or slivered almonds (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon and the nutmeg.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the melted butter, 1 cup of the sugar, the vanilla extract and almond extract. Beat on medium speed until combined. Add the eggs and continue beating on medium speed until thickened and pale yellow, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just incorporated, then mix in the chocolate chips and nuts (if using). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and set two oven racks in the centermost positions. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and shape the dough into 2 logs about 2 inches wide, 13 inches long, and 1 inch tall. Place the logs on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until lightly golden, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back midway through. Remove the pans from the oven and place on cooling racks. Let the baked logs cool for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 250°F.
- In a small bowl, mix together the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon.
- Once the logs have cooled, cut them diagonally into ¾-inch-thick slices (I do this directly on the baking sheets, but you can transfer the logs to a cutting board, if you'd like). Flip the cookies onto their sides, and then sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar over top. Flip the cookies over and repeat with the remaining cinnamon-sugar. Place the pan back in the oven (be sure the temperature has reached 250°F) and bake until golden and crisp, 40 to 45 minutes. Let the mandel bread cool on the baking sheets on the cooling racks, then store in airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks. (Note: the cookies will get crunchier as they cool.)
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months: Shape the dough into logs, wrap each securely in plastic wrap, and place them in a sealable bag. When ready to bake, remove the logs from the freezer, thaw the dough until pliable, and then proceed with recipe. To freeze after baking: After the cookies are completely cooled, double-wrap them securely with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap. Thaw overnight on the countertop before serving.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 169
- Fat: 10 g
- Saturated fat: 5 g
- Carbohydrates: 20 g
- Sugar: 10 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Sodium: 90 mg
- Cholesterol: 33 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I love the consistency of these cookies and have made them several times. I was wondering if I could switch out the chocolate chips – I have a recipe for Italian twice-baked Christmas cookies that use green and red candied cherries – and leave the rest of the recipe ingredients/measurements/oven times the same. The desired result would be a buttery/sandy textured and crumbly cookie that I’m hoping will be as good as the original recipe.
Can you let me know what you think?
Hi Marilyn, I’ve never tried them in that way, but I think it will work. I’d love to hear how they turn out!
They turned out awesome. But I think the original recipe is still the best. I have also made them with craisins, pistachios and white chocolate chips and some orange zest just for a variation and they were also very good. But Grandma Annie’s mandelbrot is still the one and only. Thank you for sharing her wonderful recipe.
Good to know, Marilyn — thanks for the follow up!
We loved it!! Grandchildren loved it. Next time I will double the recipe.
Hi Jenn,
I made these yesterday and they taste delicious and the consistency is lovely. I am not an experienced baker, and my question is about using an electric hand mixer, since I don’t have a countertop one. By the time I added the chocolate chips, the dough was fairly dense and sticky. Using a hand-mixer on low, it was just too hard to incorporate the chips evenly, and I didn’t want to “over-mix” the dough by raising the speed from 1 to 2 or 3 (out of 5). So I just stopped! I probably could have used a wooden spoon but I was too nervous about overmixing. What do you think I should have done?
Hi Maralin, because a handheld mixer is not as powerful, you don’t need to worry about increasing the speed a little to get everything mixed — that’s normal. Glad they came out nicely!
Hi Jenn,
I made this recipe as written, however when baked, the dough flattened out considerably more than what your picture appears to be. I didn’t get the dome shape that I was expecting. What do you think the reason is for this? Thanks, Nicole
Hi Nicole, Is there a chance that your baking powder is old or expired? Also, what brand of flour did you use?
Do you ever substitute matzoh cake flour for passover?
Hi Kelly, I’ve never tried it. For the most predictable results, I’d recommend looking for a mandel bread that is kosher for Passover.
I’ve tried a few different “add-ins” all with very positive feedback from family and friends. I added a small amount of espresso powder to your recipe and most recently made a batch with pistachios and unsweetened dried cranberries. Both adaptations worked well and that cinnamon sugar sprinkling really sets these apart. Great recipe and so easy to adapt. I think I’ll try adding pumpkin pie spice with the spices or combining it with sugar for the sprinkling as the weather gets cooler.
I can’t go a week without baking these, and although, I have several other Mandelbrot recipes, these get rave reviews and requests for more! Using butter instead of oil makes these a treat. My granddaughter asked me to make them for the Kiddush after her Bat Mitzvah. Today’s batch is for a very different event. The shape of them is a bit similar to a chimney swift’s body so I’m adding paper wings to them after cooling them and bringing them to our local bird club’s Swifts and Sweets gathering to watch chimney swifts as they roost in a school chimney for the night! Your recipes are wonderful and versatile for any occasion.
This recipe is delicious. I’m trying to watch my weight. Can you suggest any changes to the recipe to make it lower in calories?
Thanks. Karen
Glad you like them! There are a few places where I think you could cut some calories — Instead of using 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of sugar, I’d cut the 1 cup back to 3/4 cup. You could also cut the chocolate chips back to 3/4 cup and omit the optional nuts. Hope that helps!
As with all your recipes I have tried to date another perfect one!
Hi Jenn,
Our favorite Jewish bakery closed and now we are seriously in withdrawal for mandel bread 😀 Came across this recipe and am so excited to try it (also doing your chocolate rugelach!). My question is whether I can skip the second bake (the toasting part) to have a cakier/breadier texture to the result. The one we always enjoyed was very firm but definitely not crisp like biscotti. Would you recommend a single bake for 35-40 minutes? Or will that result in an underdone loaf?
Thanks so much – I can’t wait to try my hand at these “new-to-me” recipes. Hope you are having a healthy, safe and restful holiday season.
Hi Victoria, I think what you’re proposing would be fine but they will definitely be softer. Please LMK how they turn out if you try them this way!
It was a huge hit!!!! Everyone loved it – the flavor was perfect. I think I underestimated just how big the single loaf would be, so next time I will split the dough and bake 2 smaller ones, which should work out well. Thank you so much for the recipe and the reply to my comment. You helped me to bring a smile to my mother’s face when she saw what I made.
So glad it worked out well (and nice to know that it brought a smile to your mom’s face) 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to follow up!
Mine got a little too dark on the bottom, what could have been the cause of this?
Hi Michael, is your baking sheet a dark metal? If so, they often cause the bottom of baked goods to burn and your best bet is to get a lighter-colored metal version. If it isn’t dark, I’d nest it inside another baking sheet before baking the mandel bread — that will provide a bit more insulation to keep the bottoms from overbaking.
I just made my first batch. Delicious and didn’t overly spread the way other recipes have. I only had 80% cocoa morsels so I substituted them for the semi sweet. Only question is why did the top of the logs crack while baking? I want to give these as holidays gifts and I’d like them to look pretty. any suggestions on what I might have done wrong?
Hi Pam, It’s normal for mandel bread to have some cracks on top (that’s just the nature of it), so it doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong!