Matzo, it's just flour and water, rolled into a thin sheet and baked at a high temperature. Sounds like a cinch to make, right? That's exactly what I thought before I tried it here in the GH Test Kitchen...

This unleavened bread that the Jews made while fleeing Egypt, is a universal symbol of the 8-day Passover holiday. Many Jewish children learn the process as part of their religious education, since the way the matzo is made is symbolic. The Kindergarten class at Manhattan Day School in New York City got to practice making matzo in class, and had a blast doing it. What could be more fun than mixing and rolling out dough while in school? Especially when it has to be made in UNDER 18 MINUTES from start to finish! The students at MDS had to beat the clock while making their matzo because when the Jews were fleeing Egypt, they had no time at all to make the unleavened bread. As soon as the water meets the flour in the mixing process, the matzo must be finished within 18 minutes, which is about the time when fermentation of the dough would occur.

Usually the homemade version of food beats out the packaged stuff hands down, so with our home ovens in the GH Test Kitchens I began my matzo testing. I started at 450 degrees and that proved to be useless. What I got was a very thin, hard bread that was chewy, not crisp. The thinner the dough is rolled, the faster it bakes, but with a rolling pin, you can only get it so thin (1/16"). A pasta roller would do a great job here, but alas, it would have to be one that has never touched pasta in order to make Kosher for Passover Matzo! After baking my version and finishing under 18 minutes, my dough was not baked the whole way through, still a little wet on the inside and not browned on the outside at all.

But look at these thin, rounds of crisp, charred matzos! They're like coal-oven baked pizzas, only Kosher for Passover! To achieve those results, you need more than a full kindergarten class of kids to help you out. You need a super hot oven. We're talking 600-900 degrees F, at LEAST. It's not always a good idea to set your home oven to over 500 degrees (which isn't even hot enough to bake a thinly rolled dough within the 18 minute range!), and with mixing, rolling, and baking, 18 minutes is quite a challenge.

It's easy to see why hand-made matzo is expensive and delicious. When you've got a team of hard workers (or Kindergarteners!) hustling to beat the clock, and a hot enough oven (wood-fired, coal fired, or commercial) to bake the thinly rolled dough in 5 minutes or even less, you can achieve marvelous results. Or you can just buy some from your local grocery store, or online.

Want to try something homemade? Check out Mark Bittman's Matzo-like Sardinian Flatbread-- It sounds terrific.

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