Matzos

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
4 cups Unbleached all purpose flour
¼ cup Sesame seeds (optional)
Freshly ground pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons Coarse salt, plus additional salt for tops of matzos
1½ cup Warm water (105 F to 115 F)

Directions

The characteristic indentations of matzo (the "unleaven bread" of Passover), may give it a waffle iron look, but it is baked in a regular oven. Those little punctures are necessary to prevent the matzo from rising on it's own. I intend to make the following recipe for Passover, this year.

from "Baking with Julia" by Dorie Greenspan *Position oven rack in lower third of oven; invert a large baking sheet(not a black one) on rack and preheat oven to highest setting below broil, probably 550 F. Whisk just to combine, flour and optional ingredients if using, in a large bowl; make a well in center. Whisk salt into water and pour into well. Mix ingredients, using hands until dough cleans sides of bowl, although it may seem a little dry and shaggy. Knead until smooth, about 3 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pieces and keep all but the piece you're working with covered. Roll dough on a floured surface as thin as possible, aiming for a rectangle that's about 8x12 inches (an irregular shape is OK). The important thing is to get an even thinness, using as much flour necessary to keep dough moving. Flip it over occasionally as necessary to get the thinnest, most even sheet. Prick the dough all over with a docker or fork and sprinkle top with salt. Run hands gently over dough to help salt stick, but do not press down. Open oven door, holding the dough at one end, flip or fan it onto the hot baking sheet so that the portion of dough that goes in first is near the back of the oven. Do this as quickly as possible to not lose oven heat. Close door and set timer for exactly 1 minute. After a minute, turn matzo over (fingers work best, but be careful not to get burned). Bake precisely for another minute. It is done when it is golden, blistered and crisp. If need be, continue to bake longer, checking at 20 second intervals until it is done. Not all the matzos will bake for the same amount of time. Cool matzo on rack and continue to bake the rest of the batch. Matzo will keep for several days covered lightly at room temperature; they may be recrisped if necessary in a moderate oven for a minute or two.

*Apologies to the author, as I summarized this recipe for the sake of brevity. Posted to Kitmailbox Digest by ehgf@... (Ellen) on Apr 1, 1997

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