Fractal almond bread in memory of Benoit Mandelbrot

Benoit Mandelbrot passed away a few days ago. He has been for a long time one of my personal heroes. Rereading his wikipedia entry I've read something that I haven't noticed before:

The English pronunciation of the name "Mandelbrot", which is a German and Yiddish word meaning "almond bread",

So why not make some almond bread in the shape of a fractal?

Although I would love to make the loafs in the shape of a Mandebrot set I choose the weakling way and went for a more easy first order Sierpinski carpet.

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Step 1: Ingredients and the quest for Almond Flour

The recipe is pretty simple:

1 kilo of flour. (about 2.2 lbs) split 3 ways
300 g (2/3 lbs) of almond flour
3 Tablespoons of sugar
500 ml (a pint) of water
150 ml (5oz) milk
Instant yeast
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
almonds for decoration
2 doses of amaretto liqueur

if you want a glaze:

5 tablespoons of confectioners sugar
2 doses of amaretto liqueur

If you don't have almond flour, as I didn't I just ground some myself with a coffee grinder.

I had to work in batches and left some batches a little coarser or chunky so I could have a better end texture on the bread.

Also a word of advice: If you can, have different grinders for coffee and spices. I've ruined some very good coffee once.

seanohagan says: Oct 13, 2011. 11:48 PM

This inspired me to bake something for the 1-year anniversary of Mandelbrot's death. Take a look at the "Mandelbrot Set" almond bread at this Flickr set. This is my first time baking almond bread, so it looks a bit plain, but it was pretty tasty!