I have tons of recipes "using" matzoh, during Passover many Jewish cooks substitute matzohs or matzoh meal for flour in recipes..but I was sadly lacking in the matzoh "cracker" department. I looked on the net..found an easy one using matzoh meal (that seemed like putting the horse before the cart, although if this is too scary an undertaking, I'll be glad to send it to you)) ..then I remembered a favorite book, Flatbreads & Flavors by Alford and Duguid, and <bold>found it</bold>.

You will need a medium sized bowl, a rolling pin, a fork, or a metal comb or other utensil for making holes in the breads, and quarry tiles to fit on the rack of the oven or one or two baking sheets.

Place tiles or baking sheets on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat oven to 425°F.

When the oven is hot place 2 cups flour in a medium sized bowl and stir in water until a kneadable dough forms; you may have to ass a little more flour or water, depending on your flours. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead very quickly and vigorously until smooth, about 3 to 4 minutes. (Although you are trying to get the dough into the oven quickly, the time spent kneading is improtant, as it makes the dough easier to roll out very thin.) Cut the dough into 12 equal peices and flatten with lightly floured hands.

Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping the others covered with plastic wrap. On a lightly floured surface roll out one piece of dough as thin as possible. Prick it all over with a fork or or a sharp toothed comb, and then try to stretch it slightly to widen the holes you have made. Transfer to the quarry tiles or baking sheet, placing it to one side to leave room for more breads and bake for 2 and 1/2 to 3 minutes, until golden on the bottom and starting to crisp around the pricked holes.

Meanwhile, continue rolling out the dough, placing each bread in the oven as it is ready. If you are working with a partner, one should roll out the dough while the other pricks, stretches and bakes the breads. This will be much easier to get the breads baked in time. If your oven is small, you may not be able to fit in enough breads at once to get them done in time. If so, you can bake some of the breads on the your stove top in a dry skillet, to get them all started baking within the 18 minute time limit.

For a traditional crisp, dried matzoh, leave the breads out on a rack to cool completely and to dry.

With the small amount of dough this recipe makes, you can get all the breads into the oven if not completely baked) in less than eighteeen minutes from when we first add water to the flour. The recipe assumes that you wish to make matzoh within the time limit; without a large commercial oven, and several helping hands for the rolling out, you must begin with a small amount of dough to get all the breads done in time. To make more, make the recipe again a second time. If you aren't worried about compleying with the time limit, you can bake in larger batches.

Alternatives: If you prefer salted breads, stir in 1 teaspoon of salt into the flour, then add the water. You can add a little ovive oil to the dough if you wish. Matzoh made with salt and oil is still matzoh, but not appropriate for a Passover seder (there is no need to rush these breads).

salt, no oil, and - most important, no yeast. It is eaten during Passover to commemorate the haste with which the Jewish people fled Egypt. During Passover no yeast or yeasted products may be eaten. In religiosly observant households, the house is thoroughly cleaned and swept, and all old flour, biscuits and other unleavened products are discarded.

Matzoh must be made quickly and with clean flour in order to prevent naturally occuring yeasts from making the breads rise. The Shulchan Aruch, a sixteenth-century codification of Jewish law, requires that no more than eighteen minutes should elapse. In order to get everything done within the time limit, many hands are needed to roll out the breads and get them cooked, and only small batches can be made at a time.

Historically, Jewish communities, whether in small villages in Italy or in the cities of Iraq or Morocco, turned the production of Matzo shmura, or "kosher for Passover" into a group effort. A special patch

continued in part 2