SC - Problems with savory wafers

[Seton1355 at aol.com]

With reference to Matzot,  Or actually, wafers, I looked up some recipes for 
you.  Perhaps these will be a workable alternative for you...
Phillipa Seton

Homemade Matzoh 
2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup wholewheat flour spring water Preheat oven to 
450 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix two flours 
together and add water until you have a soft, kneadable dough. Knead about 
five minutes. Let dough rest a couple of minutes. Break off egg-sized 
portions of dough. Stretch as thinly as you can before rolling into thin, 
oval slabs that are as thin as possible. Prick each slab with a fork or 
pastry docker. Place on baking sheet and as soon as sheet is filled with 
matzohs, place in oven, and bake until crisp and buckled, about 3 minutes. 
Cool and eat. 



DO-IT-YOURSELF PESADIG MATSOT 
(As done for 20 years by David L. Kline) Ingredients: 1 part water (cold) 3 
parts flour (approximatly) Knead quickly into firm, non sticky dough. Divide 
into 1" - 1 1/2" balls, the rounder the better. Roll out to 1/8" or less 
thickness. Poke holes. Bake on tiles, at hottest setting till done (2-3 
minutes). No more than 18 minutes may elapse from the touch of the water to 
putting the matsah into the oven. 

Notes for mehadrin("meticulous beautifiers") 1 Flour: the everyday product is 
acceptable. My Hungarian predecessors include Solomon Ganzfried, than whom no 
one could be Orthodoxer. In his Kitsur Shulchan Aruch , among the meticulous 
instructions is the following: "If part of a bag of flour has been moistened 
by water, whether it is still moist or already dry, we may hold that part of 
the bag in our hands while emptying from it the rest of the flour, the use of 
which is permissible; only the moist part may not be used. If, however, the 
bag of flour has become wet in many places, so that it is impossible to 
proceed as aforementioned, then if it is still moist, we sift the flour, and 
the lumps alone which remain in the sieve is leaven, but the rest may be 
used. If mice have eaten some of the flour, it should also be sifted. If, 
however, the bag of flour has already become dry, sifting is of no avail, and 
the use of the entire four is forbidden." (English edition, Book 3, page 24) 
Kal v'chomer(a fortiori), I consider a nice, sealed, bag of flour from the 
super market to be shamur("kept") from the hazards of moisture. 
2 Water: H2O from the cold faucet. Ganzfried prefers a river to a well 
because the water is generally colder. He lets the water rest overnight so 
that no sun rays may touch it. I figure the tap runs with water that has 
rested at least that long and the pipes are opaque. 
3 All bowls, measures, rolling pins, hole punchers, peels, tiles are reserved 
for Pesach preparation. A Stainless steel mixing bowl works fine. B I use 
styrofoam cups, one for flour, one for water. C Rolling pins, either the 
expensive long tapered model or 1 1/4" dowel cut into 18" lengths. Clean them 
with sandpaper after each rolling. D The hole puncher is called a "dough 
docker" (tahker!). I found a neat plastic toothed roller, made for pizza 
preparation. (I also have a gadget with metal disks bearing wicked looking 
perforators designed for tenderizing steaks.) E A peel (sometimes called 
"spade") is the flat wooden or metal plate with handle, used for taking baked 
bread out of a brick oven. F Line oven shelf with tiles, plain red or brown, 
such as are sold for floors. One inch fire bricks will do but they are 
heavier. Leave room at edges for convection. 
4 To avoid any chance for onset of yeasting -- chometsdigity -- eighteen 
minutes is the just-to-be-on-the-safe-side maximum preparation time. 
Ganzfried takes it for granted. The Soncino footnote to Pes 46a considers it 
"generally regarded." Talmud offers the charming definition: "the time it 
takes to walk from Migdal Nunia to Tiberias, a mil." Rashi, in Yoma, says 
that a mil is 2000 cubits, and Soncino concurs. I say that doing 3000 feet in 
18 minutes is strolling, not walking, but why should I be more 
machmir("stringent") than the Hungarians? (I'm German on my mother's side.) 
Besides, bread dough, even with the addition of yeast and kept warm takes 
hours to leaven. 
5 Line the kneading/rolling surface with layers of brown paper. Remove a 
layer at the end of each 18 minute session. (I learned this by watching the 
Shmurah Matsah makers on the Lower East Side.) 
6 Best for 8-10 to work together. Dough needs to be kneaded constantly till 
rolled, perforated and baked. Assembly line does the trick. At the start of 
each session, and maybe once or twice more for good measure, all recite: 
"L'shem matsah shel mitsvah."("intended for mitsvah matsah," i.e. the matsah 
we are commanded to eat, particularly at the seder) 
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