Chocolate Mandelbrot
Makes 4 dozen or more. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil two cookie sheets or large 9 x 13” pans.
Toast in oven 2 ½ cups whole almonds in oven on an ungreased sheet until it smells good and almonds are golden, but not brown. Chop coarsely. Can use sliced almonds instead.
Melt in small saucepan over very low heat 1 oz unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate (or 3 Tbsp cocoa and 1 Tbsp oil). Set aside.
With an electric mixer, beat 4 large eggs until light and lemon coloured. Beat in gradually 1 1 /3 cups white sugar. Mix should be very light and fluffy. Beat in 1 ¼ cups vegetable oil, 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract, 2 ½ tsp almond extract, 1/8 tsp salt, & 2 ½ tsp baking powder.
Stir in the cooled almonds and 1 ½ cups shredded, unsweetened coconut.
Stir in 1 ½ cups white flour. Once this is just mixed, remove about ¼ of dough and put in another bowl, and mix in cooled, melted chocolate. This is for the chocolate dough.
To the main dough, stir in up to another 1 to 1 ½ cups flour, until dough just holds its shape.
Wet hands with cold water, form 4 long rolls to fill the length of each pan (2 per pan). They expand quite a bit in oven, so leave enough room between them.
With your finger, make a depression along the length of each roll, and put 4 rolls of the chocolate dough in the center. With the help of a knife or spatula, cover the chocolate over to make a long, well-shaped roll.
Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes until firm to touch and golden. You may want to turn the pans halfway through so they don’t burn. Remove from oven. While still warm, cut into ½ - 1” slices, diagonally if you like. Lay these on their sides, and sprinkle with a mixture of ½ cup sugar + 2 teasp cinnamon. Turn on oven to broil, and return the sheets one by one to the oven rack, placed in upper 1/3 oven. Watch carefully they burn quickly – you want them just to get nicely golden and for the sugar to crystallize a little. Once all are done, turn off the oven and return all the sheets to the oven to let them crisp up. When cool, store in airtight containers.