Unleaven That Bread, Madam!

I wanted something crispy but with little flavor of its own to have with hummus. In his New York Times column, Mark Bittman had a recipe for olive-oil matzo that I decided to try. There was even a video in which he made it look easy to do.

My attempt was not wildly successful. I didn’t roll the first batch thin enough, and I thought it would never bake. Subsequent attempts were thinner but never got as crispy as I wanted.

So the next day, thinking somebody who knew about matzo might be able to give me a tip or two about making it, I called a co-worker who is Jewish. Here is what she said:

“You made matzo? Nobody makes matzo. Matzo comes in a box in the grocery store. I don’t know anybody who makes their own matzo.”

I abandoned matzo making, but then not long ago on the Internet I ran across a recipe for unleavened bread among several recipes Maria von Trapp had included in her autobiography. I was hoping for insight to improve my luck with Bittman’s matzo, but I really got stumped on this one. After combining flour, salt, butter, egg, and water, Frau von Trapp says to …

“… mix dough quickly with a knife, then knead on board, stretching it up and down to make it elastic until it leaves the board clean. Toss on a small, well-floured board. Cover with a hot bowl and keep warm 1/2 hour or longer. Then cut into squares of desired size and bake in 350-degree oven until done.”

I’m moving right past mixing it with a knife (a knife?) and going straight for tossing it onto a small board. I picture a lump of dough that is compact enough to sit on a small board under a hot bowl. And then 30 minutes later when I remove said bowl, how will this lump have miraculously become something I can cut into squares?

Undaunted, I Googled for unleavened bread recipes, hoping somebody could shed light on this technique. I could not find anything remotely similar, but – and here finally is what set me about relating this tale -- I did find one really remarkable recipe at cooks.com for unleavened bread that calls for two ounces of yeast. I think somebody has completely missed the point there.

Who’da thunk recipes for matzo could be so entertaining?

P.S. Did you know that egg white is considered a leavening agent when whipped?