Homemade Matzo
Updated March 31, 2026
Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Ready In
- 75 mins
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
2 ¾ cups/360 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, more for sprinkling
⅓ cup/70 grams extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
34 grams carbs; 241 calories; 6 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 9 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 125 milligrams sodium; 5 grams protein
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 500 degrees with a rack positioned in the middle. Place a pizza stone or overturned baking sheet on the rack and let heat for 30 minutes while you make the dough.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to stir together flour and salt. Add olive oil and ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons water (150 grams) and stir until a pliable dough forms, adding more water if the dough seems dry.
- Step 3
Form dough into a ball and coat with a little more oil. Place the ball back in the bowl, cover with a plate or plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.
- Step 4
Lightly flour a work surface and knead dough briefly until a smooth dough forms. Cut dough into 8 equal pieces.
- Step 5
On an unfloured work surface, use a rolling pin and your hands to roll and pull one piece of dough as thin as you can. Don’t worry about shape: They can be round or oblong.
- Step 6
Prick all over with a fork, brush with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Working one at a time, carefully transfer dough to the hot pizza stone or baking pan, and bake until golden all over and lightly browned in spots, 4 to 9 minutes (timing will depend on how thin you rolled the dough). Transfer matzos to a wire rack to cool and repeat with remaining pieces of dough, rolling the next one while the previous one is baking. Store matzos airtight at room temperature for a week or more; they keep really well.
Private Notes
Comments
I was excited when I saw Melissa Clark‘s recipe for matzo bread. I love trying to make food from other cultures. Mrs. Sartell, my neighbor when I was about 10 years old taught me how to make Mondelbrot. For reasons, I’ll never understand my mother would often have matzo available in our home for snacking. Melissa’s recipe felt inclusive to me, and I appreciated that I had an opportunity to peek into a culture, possibly learn how a sacred bread was made even though the recipe wasn’t correct. My matzo is far from perfect yet I will share it with my family tonight and hopefully have the breaking of my unkosher bread lead to peace in the world.
These are lovely, but they are not matzos.
I make matza in the food processor. I often add fresh rosemary. Sometimes I roll it but I started using my pasta machine per my granddaughter.. My Atlas is old the highest # is 6. I roll it to 5. It is really delicious. The same ingredients. For kosher pasta no resting. It's supposed to be done in 18 minutes.
Actually, traditional matzo included olive oil. It's literally part of the Talmudic recipe. And Sephardic matzo still does. It was a rabbinical decision of Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbis in the late 1800s to turn matzo into a cracker of affliction.
Please describe exactly how to transfer the wafer thin dough to the pizza stone. Thanks.
This recipe is very similar to Mark Bittman’s recipe also found in NYT Cooking. That recipe adds somewhat more water, but makes 1 dozen. I made it the first time a few years ago, and since then, my family always designates me to bring matzo to our Seders. This year I made five dozen, and they disappeared in no time. Last year I sprinkled poppy and sesame seeds on them, this year, only kosher salt. I liked this year‘s better. I bake them for 3-4 minutes per side, and flipped them once. yes, I can make them in less than 18 minutes, thanks to my food processor.