Make Your Own Matzah – Its much tastier and more fun!
Instructions based on my Dad’s. More info on his blog, Good-To-Be-A-Jew
"MAKE Matza???" You ask. Yes! It’s probably one of the easiest things you’ll ever bake in your kitchen. The experience and the unique taste of home-made matzah is enough to make a family ritual out of it every year. My father is a master bread maker. So for him, the story of the Israelites speedily making unleavened bread and carrying it out of Egypt is especially interesting. He started baking matzah twenty years ago and today has perfected the process. Its most fun to do it in a group of about 8-10 people. This is an activity for ALL ages.
Ingredients:
1 part cold water
3 parts flour (approximately)
Now here’s the fun part: The entire process from when the water touches the flour to putting the matzah in the oven must be done in 18 minutes! Personally, putting in the added effort to make kosher matzot is what makes this such a fun activity. A few extra steps adds all the meaning.
Step 1: The Supplies
plenty of butcher paper and tape*
squares of sand paper*
rolling pins
hole puncher – anything from a plastic fork to a "dough docker" used for pizza preparation
1 large mixing bowl
2 measuring cups (I use styrofoam cups)
something to get the matzah in and out of the hot oven (I use a "pizza peel," a large flat wooden or metal plate with handle used for taking bread out of a brick oven
hot hot hot hot oven, as high as it goes
a timer
*You’ll want to do a few 18 minutes sessions of matzah making, so between each round (a) sand your rolling pin clean of old dough and (b) remove a layer of the butcher paper from your counters.
Prepare your kitchen and supplies.
Cover your kitchen counters or table with butcher paper and tape it down on the sides and corners. Put several layers of paper down to make it easier to change between sessions.
All bowls, measuring cups, rolling pins, hole punchers, peels, tiles are reserved for Pesach preperation. (You can use disposable stuff.)
Step 2: The Dough
Preheat the oven as high as it will go. My dad lines the oven shelves with tiles, plain red or brown bricks such as are sold for floors. This makes for some amazing matzah, but he’s hard core.
Place the flour in your bowl. Everyone should be at the ready with rolling pins in hands.
All together, recite "L’shem matzah shel mitzvah" in reference to the matzah we are commanded to eat at this time of year.
Set the timer for 18 minutes and add the water! GO!
One person (or many little hands at first) should knead the dough into a firm ball. If it seems too dry, sprinkle in a little more water at a time. Do the same with the flour if it seems too wet. Practice makes perfect.
Distribute smaller balls of dough (a little larger than a walnut) amongst the matzah makers. Roll and roll and roll out that dough until it as thin as you can get it. And then, roll it some more. Sprinkle plenty of flour onto the surface and the rolling pins to avoid sticking.
When you are sure it is as thin as you can get it, (we want our matzah to be crunchy instead of chewy, right?) punch tiny holes all over the matzah.
Step 3: Bake the Matzah
Carefully place the matzah on the floured peel and get it into that hot oven! Bake for just a few minutes, until it is browned but not burnt. It will get crispier once its taken out of the oven. Place finished matzah in a pile on more butcher paper so that it is kosher and ready for Pesach eating.
You have the remaining 18 minutes to finish using all of the dough you made and anything left over gets thrown out.
Once it’s cooled, wrap your matzah in fresh butcher paper and tape shut.
Your home-made matzah is going to blow that boxed store bought matzah out of the water. So be sure to use it during your seder and remember that its very fresh so eat it up quickly! During Pesach if your matzah feels a little stale, a few minutes in a hot oven will re-crispify it.
Enjoy!
