PASSOVER: Our Favorite Treat For Everyone

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April 6, 2012 at 3:15 pm · Filed under Kosher Nibbles, Passover, Recipes

Matzo “toffee”: white chocolate with pistachios and dark chocolate with almonds. Photo courtesy MysteryLoversKitchen.com.

Passover food and beverages (including wine) are a $2.5 billion to $3 billion industry. It sounds unbelievable, but according to KosherToday.com, some 30,000 different kosher-for-Passover products were produced specifically for Passover 2012. You may see shelves at the supermarket filled with a few dozen items—matzos, matzo meal, coconut macaroons, chocolate-coated jelly rings and other foods. But the ingredients for every kosher-for-Passover food recipe is also included among the 30,000.

There are approximately six million Jews in America, of whom an estimated 70% celebrate the holiday. Jewish law forbids the consumption of fermented grain products and related foods. For the eight days of Passover, there are no bread products except matzo and potato bread, no pasta, no beer, no year-round favorite treats.

Except that we do have a favorite Passover treat that can be enjoyed year-round. Variously called Matzo* Brittle, Matzo Buttercrunch and Matzo Toffee, it transforms bland boards of matzo, an unleavened flatbread, into a crunchy chocolate confection.

Here are two variations:

Cookbook author (A Treasury Of Jewish Holiday Baking) Marcy Goldman’s iconic recipe, which she calls Vanilla Matzoh Caramel Buttercrunch

A variation by Cindy Coyle, who calls it “Passover Crack for Easter,” an interfaith treat.

We recommend making more than one batch: one for the home, one for a seder gift, one to treat friends and co-workers who have never tasted this addictive confection—which of course, can be made year-round.
*Variously spelled matzo, matza, matzoh or matzah.

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