Around this time of year, I receive a lot of emails asking about making gluten free matzo. People also want to know what they can eat. Is rice ok? Corn? Lentils? These are good questions and speak to the level of Jewish observance you follow in your own life. I decided to write a post that will help you understand the details that go into making homemade gluten free matzo. Please go here to read the post. It includes links to my four gluten free matzo recipes (here and here and here and here) as well as a link to my gluten free matzo making video.
Next week, I'll be experimenting even further. I'm ready to return to the field. Plus I'm going to try using a new secret piece of equipment which I ordered today to make matzo. If my instincts are correct, it will aid enormously in making gluten free matzo at home. I'm hoping to have it by the middle of next week, in time for my Gluten Free Matzo Making class which I'm teaching at Temple Emanuel in Worcester, MA.
During the next two weeks, I'll also be posting the recipes I'll be making for my gluten free and dairy free and vegan seder. Please come back and visit! And feel free to share your links and/or recipes for Passover. We all benefit when we learn from each other.
These GF matzo recipes look great -- thanks! I'm not sure I will get around to making my own, but it's great to have your recipes just in case!
ReplyDeleteThose look so great! Yum. Too bad the mixes are not kosher for Passover, even for Sephardim, so they won't work for me. bBt I will still give it a try during a time when I want matzo for the taste and texture rather than for Pesach. The other issue for me is if it's not made of the five grains (wheat, barley, rye, spelt and oats) it isn't considered matzo and therefore saying hamotzi on it is considered by most people I've spoken to to be basically wasting a bracha which is something many of us avoid very diligently. So I have to eat the nasty oat matzo, but only in enough quantity to fulfill the mitzvah and beyond that I stick to other options. I do not normally eat kitniyot, I haven't found it to be necessary since gluten is my only real food intolerance and there are plenty of non-gebrokts options (usually I eat a lot of fish, meat, eggs, dairy, and loads of quinoa, fresh vegetables and fruits). Unfortunately this year I am on a low-fiber diet due to serious GI issues, so I have a heter (permission) to eat kitniyot so that I can have rice. It's so strange... I have no idea how to wrap my head around the idea of eating rice for Passover because I'm so used to very strictly avoiding it because I'm Ashkenazi ;-p
ReplyDeleteEve - thanks for visiting!
ReplyDeleteByTheBay - I have been studying with a rabbi for almost four years. He gives his hechsher for using Anna's bread mixes to make matzo. In rabbinic literature, it specifically says that the infirm, elderly, and children are not required to follow the mitzvot to the letter of the law. Having Celiac falls in this category. So, even though her mixes contain beans and/or rice, he says that it is ok to use them. And furthermore, even though they don't contain any of the five grains as specified for Passover (wheat, rye, barley, spelt, or oats), we are also still fulfilling the mitzvot by eating matzo made from her mixes. I suppose if you wanted to, you could take out a little of the mix and replace it with some oat flour - mixed well into the rest of the bread mix - and then, when you say the bracha, you'd be saying it over one of the five grains, even though it's in a small amount. I, too, was raised as an Ashkenazic Jew, but I decided, for my own personal observance, that it was ok to make this exception. I realize it might not be acceptable to others, but for me, it allows me to eat the matzo that I make at home. Thanks for stopping by. Have a zissen Pesach!
Ellen,
ReplyDeleteI know that traditionally buckwheat is on the kitniyot list, but I used it anyway to make terrific matzah this year. It's appearance has left it mistakenly considered a seed, but in reality, it is a fruit! (Chat your Rabbi up about that.) Fresh ground flour (groats spun up in the coffee grinder are great) makes a flour that is very tasty, and nothing like the pre-ground buckwheat flour we are used to (thanks to Ali at Whole Life Nutrition for that little nugget.)
Barb
Hi Anonymous - I just bought some buckwheat groats (kasha) and plan on grinding it in my vitamix dry jar. Can't wait to bake with it!
ReplyDelete