Simple, Soft Unleavened Bread (Matzo)

How to make homemade unleavened bread for Passover and the Feast of Matzah. Includes recipe video tutorial.

Store bought matzah is generally always like a giant saltine cracker – thin and crunchy. But there’s no rule that says it has to be.

It can also be soft and tender. That’s what I am sharing with you today.

What is Unleavened Bread?

Unleavened bread, also known as Matzah/Matza/Matzo, is just as it sounds: bread with no leavening. (It is spelled many ways, depending upon what culture is typing it out or where you are reading it.)

In the Bible, the feast that begins at Passover is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or simply Matzah.

” Adonai spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt; he said, “You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you. Speak to all the assembly of Isra’el and say, ‘On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb…You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month…That night, they are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire; they are to eat it with matzah and maror….It is Adonai’s Pesach [Passover]...

 “‘This will be a day for you to remember and celebrate as a festival to Adonai; from generation to generation you are to celebrate it by a perpetual regulation...

From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat matzah. During those seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses.”

Exodus 12:1-3;6;8;11b;14;18-19

Most often when people are keeping the feast, they will purchase store-bought matzah. I have done that many times myself.

One of my favorite store-bought versions is actually a gluten-free version.

Throughout the feast of Matzah, I will make all sorts of recipes with this giant, cracker-like bread. Things like Matz’n Cheese Casserole, Easy Matzo Pizza, or Matzo Bark Candy (also called “matzah crack”)

But depending upon where you live, matzah can be hard to source. If you find yourself in that situation, you can make your own!

Is it Kosher?

Now before I get into the recipe, I do want to mention that there are many “rabbinical laws” about what is and is not kosher. I am not an orthodox Jew, I do not keep rabbinical law. So this recipe wouldn’t be considered “kosher” under those rules.

However, the Bible does not specify what flour to use, what ingredients must (or must not) be in it, with the one exception being: leaven. It also doesn’t say how quickly the bread has to be made (under 18 minutes according rabbinical “laws.”)

Click Here to see my Gluten Free Matzah recipe

Biblically speaking, leaven would have been sourdough starter or wild yeast.

Today, unleavened bread is made without yeast, but also without our modern leavening ingredients of baking soda or baking powder.

So is this kosher?

Rabbinically – no…Biblically – yes!

There are many ways of making an unleavened bread. This is one of those many ways.

To Make This Recipe You Will Need:

• all purpose flour
• butter
• water
• salt
• mixing bowl
• rolling pin
• cast iron skillet

You can see me make this recipe in the video below

To begin, combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated. You can use an electric mixer with dough hook if you like. (I find that the easiest.)

Form the dough into a ball and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into portions slightly larger than a golf ball. This will make 8 – 10 pieces, depending upon how you cut them.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface using your rolling pin or a tortilla press.

Preheat an un-oiled cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat.

Place your first piece of matzah on the hot skillet and let it sit for a minute or so, until the bread is lightly golden in spots and slightly puffs up.

Turn it over and cook on the other side until it is cooked through, about another minute.

Repeat with all of the dough.

You can serve the unleavened bread/matzah warm or cool it on a rack to serve later.

Store the matzah/unleavened bread in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

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