Nov. 16--Irving Kaplan's mandelbrot were described by judges as habit-forming during the tasting of the Tribune's Holiday Cookie Contest finalists in 2008. The chewy, moist cookies earned him a third place finish that year.
The recipe is excerpted from "Holiday Cookies," a collection of more than 100 recipes of winning cookies from 25 years of the Tribune's annual Holiday Cookie Contest. We are featuring a cookie per week, leading up to the Dec. 2 announcement of this year's contest winners, to mark the second printing of the book, which was published in 2014 by the Tribune with Surrey Books. The book is available for $17 at www.chicagotribune.com/holidaycookiesbook.
Irv's mandelbrot
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 35-45 minutes
Makes: 48 cookies
Irving Kaplan of Palatine won third place in 2008 with his take on this traditional cookie.
3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup each, chopped: almonds, dried cranberries
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix together the flour, 1 cup of the sugar, almonds, cranberries, baking powder and salt in a large bowl with electric mixer on low speed; slowly beat in the eggs, oil, vanilla and orange zest.
2. Scrape dough onto a lightly floured wooden board; knead until well mixed. Roll into ball; divide into four pieces. Roll each piece into a log about 10 inches long and 3 inches wide. Bake logs, 3 inches apart, on lightly oiled foil-lined cookie sheets until lightly brown and firm, 30-40 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mix together the remaining 1/4 cup of the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Remove logs from oven; slide onto cutting board. Let logs cool 5 minutes. Gently cut each log into 12 pieces using a serrated knife. Return cookies, cut side up, to cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mix. Return to oven; bake 5 minutes. Turn off oven; leave cookies overnight to dry out.
Nutrition information per cookie: 113 calories, 6 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 13 mg cholesterol, 13 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein, 26 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
