Hello my friends. Here we are at Friday again. If you’re like me, you’re feeling inundated with “the state of the world” talk so let’s not do any of that here today and instead take a little trip together. Aren’t you longing to see the world? That’s the magic you experience when you open up The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook : Artisanal Baking from Around the World by Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez and Julia Turshen. Today we’re baking up their easy recipe for homemade matzo! Whether you celebrate Passover or not, this is a Famous Fridays for you!

Before we get to the actual cookbook though, we have to talk about what Hot Bread Kitchen is really all about, because it is so much more than just a cookbook. It’s also a fabulous Brooklyn, NY bakery (used to be in Harlem but recently relocated to a larger space) and a nonprofit dedicated to helping disadvantaged women train for careers in the food service industry. The mission of Hot Bread is so inspiring, something we could really use a lot more of, particularly now when we’re feeling so powerless. As soon as all of this quarantining is over, I’m definitely making a trip to Brooklyn to learn more about them and taste their yummy and diverse selection of breads and other baked goodies!

But until then we’ll have to keep ourselves satisfied by baking up the enormously wide ranging collection of breads in this cookbook. Not only are there the mainstream classics we all know like brioche, challah, baguettes and multigrain loaves, but more exotic offerings from cultures all over the world, like M’smen, a flatbread from Morocco, and Injera, a spongy flatbread from Ethiopa made from teff flour. You can find Indian Naan, authentic Mexican hand-ground corn tortillas, and European Jewish bialys. There are also a slew of accompanying recipes from all of these different ethnic regions, like Tibetan Momos (meat-filled dumplings), Tamales Dulces with Cinnamon and Pineapple, Doro Wat (a braised Ethopian chicken stew) and more familiar offerings like Hummus, Pan Bagnat and Grilled Cheese French Toast with Caramelized Peaches. It wasn’t easy to narrow down what to feature today but what eventually sealed the deal is not only that Passover is just a few days away and that I’ve always wanted to try making my own matzo, but that yeast is rather precious now too!

So let’s make some matzo!

You start by mixing up a simple 5 ingredient dough and dividing it into 5 pieces.

Then you shape the dough into a rectangle—

And roll it out as thinly as possible on a piece of parchment paper.

You can even prick holes in it so it looks more like the boxed kind.

Meanwhile, you preheat your oven with a pizza stone or inverted rimmed baking sheet so that it gets hot, hot, hot (careful) and eventually slide the dough onto it.

The matzo bakes in just a few minutes and crisps up as it cools.

Not exactly gorgeous, but eye-catching in that rustic, earthy, freeform way. And you gotta love those browned spots! It’s crispy and chewy at the same time. YUM!

Plus, it makes for a fun, not too difficult project—you could definitely let the kids help with this one!

So…if bread baking keeps you calm, order yourself a copy of Hot Bread Kitchen and explore the world, albeit virtually. And have a safe and healthy weekend. As always, I’m here (literally 24/7 now) if you have any cooking related questions or just want to connect!xoxo

The Hot Bread Kitchen’s Homemade Matzo-Famous Fridays

Makes 5 large sheets

It’s not absolutely necessary but it does help to have a stand mixer with a dough hook for this.

Prep Time: 20-25 minutes; Bake Time: 4-6 minutes per sheet

Ingredients

2 cups (250g) unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out dough
½ cup (65g) whole wheat flour
1 cup (225g) water
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

The Recipe

1. If you have a pizza stone place it in the middle of the oven and preheat to 500ºF. If you don’t have one, you can just invert a rimmed baking sheet and preheat that instead.

2. Place both flours, water, salt and oil in the bowl of a standing mixer. Whisk the ingredients together. Attach a dough hook to the mixer and at medium speed, mix the dough for a couple of minutes just until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl—you don’t want to over mix or develop the gluten too much. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, just use a regular handheld one. If the dough is too thick, you can mix it by hand with a wooden spoon.)

3. Wet your hands and divide the dough into 5 equalish pieces. Cover them loosely with a piece of plastic wrap.

4. Working with one piece of dough at a time, dredge it in flour, and use your fingers to shape it into a rough rectangle. Now use a rolling pin to roll the dough paper thin on a piece of parchment, about 12x8-inches. Honestly, the shape doesn’t really matter. As you roll, periodically loosen the dough from the sheet by sliding a knife or offset spatula underneath the dough and sprinkling a little flour under it so that it doesn’t stick to the paper. If you find the dough resisting being rolled out, let it rest for a few minutes and try again.

5. Use a fork to prick the matzo at regular intervals to make it look like the kind of matzo you buy from the store (you could skip this step).

6. Bring the matzo on the parchment close to the oven. Quickly open the oven door and carefully transfer the parchment with the matzo onto the preheated stone or baking sheet. Bake for about 5 minutes or so, watching carefully, until you start to see some browned spots. If you like it darker, let it cook a minute or so longer. Carefully remove the parchment with the matzo and transfer to a wire rack. It will crisp as it cools. Repeat the process with the remaining 4 pieces of dough. Store matzo in an airtight container at room temperature. It’s supposed to last a week but ours didn’t make it past Day 2!!

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook by Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez and Julia Turshen. I stuck pretty true to this but simplified some of the baking methods.