Matzo Crack

Matzo Crack

Adapted from Marcy Goldman and David Lebovitz by Blue Heron Kitchen

If there’s one confection you add to this year’s seder table, make it this one, Crack. You can prepare it now and keep it in the fridge or freezer (but you may finish it before your seder). 

It’s simple to prepare and lifts matzo out of the dessert onto the dance floor. Crack is why you should get the 5 lb. (Israeli) for free or $2.99 (Streits or Manischewitz) with the coupon at Stop and Shop, (even if you live alone or you're Catholic or Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Jain or Gujarati or a devout Atheist). Passover is a culinarily peculiar holiday, when practicing Jews cease eating anything that’s leavened for an entire week. It's all about matzo and potatoes. 

This confection is addictive. If you don’t like matzo, you’ll like it now.

If vanilla extract isn’t in your Passover kitchen, don’t worry – omit it.

Play around with semi-sweet or dark chocolate. Omit the chocolate and make Caramel Crack (try light brown sugar and don’t forget the vanilla extract – or scrape ½ a vanilla bean into the caramel before pouring it over the matzo).

I’m going to make another batch later with dark chocolate and I'll sprinkle crispy bacon chopped candied ginger on top! 

The story of Passover is all about the Jews being enslaved and then not. Israel needs to sing “Let My People Go” and replace “My” with “Their” .. It's time to let the Palestinians that are grossly encamped "Go". What a perfect Passover is would be - no more hypocrisy! 

To those who celebrate, Happy Passover! If not, grab a box of matzo and make this - a couple of times. Got matzo? .. make Crack .. or matzo brei.

peace and love,

jane

Ingredients:

4 (6-1/2-by-6-inch) sheets unsalted matzo

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into large pieces

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

¾ tsp. kosher salt

¾  tsp. fleur de sel* (see below)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups excellent quality semi or dark chocolate chips

1 cup toasted sliced almonds or other toasted coarsely chopped nuts

* Don’t waste your precious fleur de sel in the caramel – use kosher salt. But do sprinkle fleur de sel on top for a perfect sweet and salty finish.

Procedure:

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with 2 overlapping pieces of aluminum foil that wrap over the edges of the baking sheet or parchment that extends over each side of the baking sheet.

Arrange the matzo in a single layer on the baking sheet, breaking pieces as needed to fill any empty spaces.

Place the butter, brown sugar, and 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir with a rubber spatula until the mixture comes to a boil, about 5 minutes. Continue to boil, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes more.

Remove from the heat, add the vanilla (or not)  - add it slowly, because the caramel may bubble up and seize. (That’s okay.)

Pour the caramel over the matzo and spread it evenly using an offset or silicone spatula.

Place the (careful, it’s hot!) baking sheet in the oven and bake until small bubbles cover the surface and the caramel is fragrant (do not let the caramel burn), about 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the chocolate chips. In about a minute or two, the chips will have softened.

Using an offset spatula, spread the chocolate evenly over the caramel. Immediately, sprinkle with the toasted nuts and remaining 3/4 teaspoon fleur de sel.

Refrigerate the brittle until cool, about 15 minutes. 

Break into pieces and serve.

The matzo crack can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature or refrigerated for up to 1 week. This freezes well (and like Mallomars or Thin Mints ... you know where I'm going.)

Coffee

The Java Jive
Blue Heron Kitchen

I love to drink coffee (and tea); and the method you use to make your coffee makes a difference. I have pretty basic, but good quality equipment for brewing coffee. I don't vacuum, but I do plunge. Some mornings are for dripping.

Here’s a comprehensive coffee brewing reference guide from sweetmarias.com

Below, are links to Clive Coffee, a company I've bought my brewing and grinding equipment from. If you're in the U.S., I recommend you give them a call.

You can get nuts with coffee, but for those of us who love coffee, the first cup of the day is one of the perks of getting out of bed.

The Technivorm is the Ferrari of drip brewers. If you have a few hundred dollars, American, to spend, this is rated highest in the land. Coffee geeks, on a tighter budget (or who fundamentally object to spending this amount for a drip tool), there’s hope! At coffeegeek.com, Rated as good, if not superior to Technivorm is the Bonavita drip machine, producing results that coffee geeks claim are comparable or superior to the Technivorm. I have the one with a thermal carafe. There's one with a glass carafe that's less expensive. This machine has no bells or whistles. You won't find a timer, options for slow or fast brewing, nor is there (another) clock to turn forward or back or reprogram when the power fails. Two switches: "on" and "off".

The Bonavita machine brews a fantastic pot of coffee in a couple of minutes. 

Call the very helpful people at Clive Coffee. This is important: they’ll match prices you find elsewhere, so do your homework and get the best price you can find online. (They also throw in pound of their own great coffee!) 

A note of caution: if you’re still ‘whirring’ your beans in that single bladed grinder, you may want to retire it from coffee duty (it’s a perfect spice grinder!) Consider buying a burr grinder (Link is to a Baratza Virtuoso burr grinder. This grinder is mid-priced. It’s the one I've owned for years and the only downside is it's knob that sometimes falls off (why?) Maybe by now they've come up with a solution to this silly situation. These are mini commercial-style grinders designed for home use. Talk to your person at Clive. Whatever you do, don’t buy a burr grinder for its good looks. What I like about the people at Clive Coffee is that they find you the best machines for where you land on the coffee geek-o-meter, your lifestyle and most important, your budget.

peace and love,
jane

From Sweet Marias:
Some ideal coffee/water/time ratios for different brewing methods:

				Amt of Coffee
	Amt of water			by weight					Infusion Time
#1 drip filter cone	5 oz (150ml)			8 grams					2:30
#2 drip filter cone	10 oz (300ml)			16 gr					2:30
Clever Coffee Dripper	12 oz (360mL)			22 gr					4:00
#4 filter	20 oz (590 ml)			32 gr					2:30
Chemex 6 cup	30 oz (890 ml)			48.5 gr					2:30
Chemex 8 cup	40 oz (1180 ml)			64.5 gr					2:30
Chemex 13 cup	50 oz (1480 ml)			80.7 gr					2:30
*Tip: For drip cone methods, wet the grounds and let them "bloom" for 30 seconds, then pour slowly for 2 minutes
French Press:
4T	16 oz (470 ml)			25.8 gr			4 to 6  min
8T	32 oz (950 ml)			51.7 gr			4 to 6  min
12T	48 oz (1420 ml)			77.5 gr			4 to 6  min
*Tip: Plunge after infusion time, then wait four minutes and pour slowly
Vacuum pot:
5 c Yama	20 oz (590 ml)			32 gr			45 seconds
Cona C	25 oz (740 ml)			40.3 gr			45 seconds
8c Yama/Cona D	32 oz (950 ml)			51.7 gr			45 seconds
*Tip: Infusion time measured once water is up in the coffee. There is a range of techniques - from adding hot water to the bottom bowl to letting the water rise to the top and then adding the coffee.  So you may want to check out a variety of techniques and find the one that works for you.
(See note)
1/2 pot 8 cup	17 oz (503 mL)			26 gr			3 min
1/2 pot 10 cup	21 oz (621 mL)			38 gr			3 min
8 cup	34 oz (1000 ml)			57 gr			5 min
10 cup	42 oz (1240ml)			75 gr			5 min
*Tip: We close the drip stop switch on the brew basket, wait for the brew basket to fill, stir and then let it flow.
Water temperature for all brewing is 195 to 205 degrees. Typically this means water just off the boil.
On weighing ground coffee: It is much more accurate to measure roasted coffee by weight, since dark roasted coffee takes up more room than light roast.  A "standard coffee scoop" (which in reality can vary widely) ought to be equal to two level Tbsp. Which would be 8 to 9 grams of dark roast, or 10 to 11 grams of light roast coffee. The ideal brewing practice is: Grind immediately before you brew. Adjust grind to brewing method and use a good grinder. Use good clean water. If your water does not taste good, neither will your coffee. Pre-Rinse your paper filter. This reduces paper taste, which can be more of an issue when brewing small amounts of coffee. Make more. For a somewhat mysterious reason, filter-brewed coffee tastes better the more you make. Coffee is fresh for 10 minutes or less. Try to make the right amount of coffee so you are drinking fresh brewed coffee more often.