Matzoh – crispy thin wafers of unleavened bread – are the basis for many many favorite Passover recipes in Jewish culture. Gluten Free matzoh can be ruinously expensive to buy (and hard to come by!). This recipe can be used in traditional recipes calling for matzoh (such as matzoh brei), or ground to make matzoh balls etc., using your old family favorites.
Please note! This would not be an appropriate recipe to use if you keep very strict kosher-for-passover rules within your house, in which case you would want to buy something like this brand instead where available, but at Better Batter we understand there are many many levels of observance within Jewish culture.
For those from the “I’m sephardic at Passover time, so I can eat rice” to the “I’m Jew-ish
While this recipe does use the traditional 18 minute method, if you’re not concerned with authenticity you can relax the time schedule a little 😉
2 cups (8oz or 227g) Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1 cup +/- Water (this will vary and you may use up to 1/4 c oil instead if desired, in place of part of the water)
1 tsp kosher salt (optional, in a grinder is best!) plus any desired for sprinkling on top
Instructions
Gather equipment – to make this matzoh, timing is of the essence.
Note from Naomi: If you want the matzoh to be made within 18 minutes, you’ve got to have ALL ingredients gathered and ready (see below to ensure you’ve got your mis en place in place ;-))
- Broiler (fully heated)
- 3 Baking sheets
- Mixing Bowl or Kitchen-aid Mixer
- Parchment Paper for Rolling and Transferring
- Rolling Pin
- knife or pizza cutter
- Fork (for pricking matzoh)
- Tongs for flipping matzoh
- Cooling Racks
To make this recipe, you will want your broiler to be preheated. If you are using an electric broiler you will want to raise your rack until it is as close as possible to the broiler – about 3 inches.
Working quickly, in your mixing bowl or mixer, blend together the Better Batter flour, water (and optional oil), and optional salt. The texture of the dough should resemble play-dough – slightly tough and easy to manipulate. Working very quickly, break dough into 2oz portions (about the size of a large egg) and roll, on parchment paper, into ovals that are around 1/16th to 1/8 inch thick. If you’d like to to make square matzoh instead, feel free to divide dough into three portions and roll into large rectangles on parchment paper, until required thickness, and score quickly into squares.
Very quickly, working in straight lines, prick the dough all over with the tines of the fork. For best results prick about 1/8 to 1/4 inch apart. You can actually buy docking equipment to do this more evenly, but a fork is efficient if you’re not too picky about perfectly straight lines. Feel free to sprinkle with ground kosher salt if desired.
Immediately place the dough onto a place into the oven/broiler – you want the heat to be at least 550 degrees (most broilers are around 550 or 600 degrees), and you want to watch the dough carefully. The matzoh should take from 1 to 3 minutes to cook, with tiny bubbles forming (they always do) and browning quickly. As soon as you see the top of the matzoh take on a golden hue, quickly open the door, using tongs flip the matzoh and broil for another minute. Watch carefully – this can burn in an instant!
Immediately remove from oven – placing second cookie sheet in the oven while you turn the matzoh onto the cooling racks. Repeat again with the last cookie sheet.
To keep to the 18 minute rule you will find you will make this recipe many, many times (if you eat a lot of matzoh!). If timing is not of the essence, you can get away with double-triple-quadrupling the recipe and taking your time.
With practice