Original post by Nina Lincoff on Spoon University - Northwestern.
As I've learned, almost all non-Jews love Matzo. I, being non-Jewish, absolutely love matzo. It's a giant tablewater cracker just waiting for a smear of cream cheese, maybe a little lox. It's the perfect neutral vessel for a nice, triple crème cheese. With a little butter and pinch of good salt, maybe a crack of freshly ground pepper, it's divine.
Of course, as many of my Jewish friends point out, I only love matzo because afterwards, beforehand, and sometimes even along with my matzo snacks, I am eating pasta, rice, leavened bread, and washing it all down with a nice grain-based drink. For us non-Jews, matzo is a nice yearly alternative to the Wasa cracker or toast. But eat nothing but matzo for a week and chances are that lovely dry, charred cardboard taste will pop up.
Over the decades, perhaps even centuries, many an ingenious grandmother, and probably a few grandmothers, grandfathers, and fathers, have come up with the perfect encasement for matzo. Matzo Toffee. As we all know, take anything and add caramel, and you just created something closely resembling crack. Not the most holy of substances, but hey. It sure is addicting. Kosher too.
Crack has recently become a popular adjective to describe food, and as our friends over at the National Institute on Drug Abuse have found, food is more addictive than many drugs. Granted, we all need food while very few of us need a little more crack cocaine in our lives. Regardless how ironic the comparison, you'll find that with a jar of matzo toffee on the table, it disappears more quickly than you would have imagined. Thanks to the subtle honey tones in the toffee, the richness of the chocolate, and the natural lusciousness of the nuts, matzo toffee does not simply mask the matzo, it plays off all its best qualities. Neutral in flavor, thin, brittle and crunchy, you've never had matzo this addictive.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes, plus about 2 hours to set
Serving: 16
Ingredients:
5-6 pieces of matzo
1/2 cup nuts, like macadamia, sliced almonds, pecans, walnuts, etc.
1 cup chocolate chips, milk or dark
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup, (1 stick), unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
Pinch salt
Get the full recipe here.