If you happen to have a box of matzo kicking around, and even if you don’t, it's worth finding some at your local grocery store to make this craveable sweet treat. Made with just a few ingredients, and as many customizable toppings as you can imagine, crispy, crunchy, buttery, caramelized, nutty, chocolatey Nutty Toffee Matzo Crunch is an easy to make delight that gives Easter chocolate a run for its money.
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The treat that you can't stop eating!
While matzo itself is, ahem, kind of plain, its virtue is in its perfectly crunchy neutrality, which becomes a foil for other delicious toppings and flavours (as all good crackers should!). In a savoury snacking context, matzo is the ideal neutral base for anything from cheese and chutney, to egg salad, to butter and flaky sea salt, and so forth.
Where matzo really shines however, is in this sweet treat that makes for a craveable snack or a Passover appropriate dessert which gives easter chocolate a run for its money, something plain matzo never could! Here, matzo is fused with toffee to create an incredibly crisp caramelized crunch, topped with chocolate, and showered with delicious toppings into a snack/candy/dessert hybrid that is frankly irresistible. It tastes just as delicious as you imagine; trust me, you just can’t go wrong with something this right!
What is toffee?
If you’ve ever had a Skor or Daim candy bar, or English toffee for that matter, you’ve had toffee! Toffee is a cousin to caramel, made with sugar and butter but cooked to what is called the ‘hard crack’ stage. Unlike caramel, which is made with white sugar, cooked at lower temperatures, and spans a textural range from liquid, to soft, or chewy, toffee is made with brown sugar, cooked at a higher temperature, and becomes brittle and crunchy. While true toffee is made with a thermometer and cooked to about 300°F, here you can easily get close enough just by cooking the mixture on the stovetop and eyeballing the results.
Ingredients
All you need to make Nutty Toffee Matzo Crunch is:
- Plain matzo (see below for substitutions)
- Light brown sugar
- Salted butter
- Chocolate chips
- Slivered almonds, pistachios, cacao nibs, or your own curated toppings (see options below)
- Flaky sea salt
Method
Making Nutty Toffee Matzo Crunch is quick and easy. Start by layering a standard baking sheet pan (also known as a “Half Sheet” - or an 11” x17” baking sheet pan) with foil, followed by a layer of parchment paper. Place a single layer of matzo to cover the entire base of the pan, breaking smaller pieces and fitting them in where needed.
Make the toffee by melting and boiling the butter and sugar together in a large pan on the stovetop until thickened, opaque and pulling away from the sides. Working quickly but carefully, pour the liquid toffee over the matzo and spread evenly.
Place the toffee covered matzo in the oven for 15 minutes, keeping an eye out should the toffee start to overly darken; if so, remove the pan from the oven or turn the temperature down (as many ovens are hotter than the temperature setting suggests).
Once removed from the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips on the matzo toffee layer, letting the residual heat melt the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, spread evenly, then shower with my suggested toppings, which for me means crushed pistachios, slivered almonds, cocoa nibs, and flaky sea salt.
An important note on safety!
While cooking sugar and butter together for toffee is quick and easy, temperatures can get very high when cooking sugar, so take extra care so as not to accidentally touch the toffee mixture with bare hands (I learnt this unfortunate truth as a teenage cook, giving myself a bad burn in the process) or handle the pan without the appropriate heat safe protection. Take care not to use uninsulated utensils either, such as a metal spoon which will conduct the heat; instead, use wooden, silicone, or metal utensils with heat safe handles.
Options and substitutions
If you don’t have matzo on hand, plain and crisp crackers could work, such as saltine or ritz style crackers, although I have not tested this substitution.
If gluten free, substitute gluten free matzo or crackers, and if vegan, use the dairy free chocolate of your choice.
Other optional toppings in addition or instead of my suggested toppings could include: toasted shredded coconut, chopped dried or freeze dried fruit, sesame seeds, chocolate sprinkles, chopped peanuts, hazelnuts, or pecans - you get the idea! Use what you love!
Save the crumbs!
While cutting up the Matzo Crunch you will be left with a nice little pile of crispy crunchy caramelized crumbs mixed with little bits of nuts and the other toppings - don't throw these away, they are gold! Save the crumbs to sprinkle onto plain ice cream or anything else that would benefit from a lovely sweet and crunchy topping!
Storage
Store the cut pieces of Nutty Toffee Matzo Crunch on the counter in a biscuit tin with a tight lid, although don’t expect your batch to last very long!
Looking for something else to tickle your fancy?
Nutty Toffee Matzo Crunch
Ingredients
- 4-5 sheets plain matzo
- 1 cup (226 grams) salted butter
- 1 cup (215 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 1.5 cups chocolate chips I used semi sweet; bittersweet would be fine too.
- ½ cup toasted slivered almonds
- ¼ cup crushed toasted pistachios
- ¼ cup cacao nibs
- a generous pinch of flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F degrees.
- Line a standard baking sheet (11”x 17”) with foil, followed by a layer of parchment paper on top.
- Place whole sheets of matzo tightly together to cover the base of the pan, breaking sheets into smaller sections to completely cover the base of the pan. Don’t worry if some of the edges are jagged, they will get hidden later on.
- In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter and sugar together over medium heat, whisking occasionally until both ingredients are liquid. Once the mixture starts to bubble and reach a boil, whisk constantly for 3 minutes. The toffee mixture will be light and opaque, and will start to thicken and pull away from the edges, but should still be quite viscous and whiskable.
- Quickly and carefully pour out all of the toffee mixture on top of the matzo, and use an offset spatula to spread the toffee evenly over the matzo (although no need to get too fussy about it because as the toffee quickly cools it will become harder to spread so don’t worry too much).
- Place the pan with the toffee covered matzo into the preheated oven for 15 minutes to further caramelize. Throughout this time the toffee will visibly bubble. It shouldn’t burn at this temperature, but keep an eye out just in case, and if your oven runs hot, reduce the temperature by about 25 degrees or pull the pan out early.
- Set out a baking rack on your kitchen counter, remove the pan from the oven carefully after the allotted baking time, and place on the rack. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee, and leave for 5 minutes, letting the residual heat melt the chocolate.
- After 5 minutes, use another clean offset spatula to spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee. Then sprinkle on the toppings to your heart’s delight.
- Leave the pan of Nutty Toffee Matzo Crunch to come to room temperature, then place in the fridge until the chocolate has fully set.
- You can either break the matzo crunch apart like brittle or bark, or use a knife to cut semi-regular pieces. Store extra pieces on the counter in a biscuit tin, although don’t expect your batch to last very long!
Nina Levitt says
I’ve eaten lots of matzah crunch in my day and this is THE absolute best!!
daraeats says
Thank you so much!
Rosie Jeffares-Levitt says
I’ve tasted many versions of this treat, but none as good as this recipe. Dara,
your recipes outdo all the rest!
daraeats says
You're too kind Rosie, glad you loved it!