Matzo Bread Men

We kicked off a small Passover study, this morning, by reading Lisa Shulman's The Matzo Ball Boy. Shulman has tweaked the story of the Gingerbread Man for Passover. While not a traditional Passover story, there's no mention of Moses, or the plagues, it is sprinkled with Yiddish terms, with a glossary of definitions, and a pronunciation guide, at the back of the book, and has a very, Jewish flavor.


I tried my hand at making matzo balls for lunch, following the recipe on the back of a box of Matzo Meal. Then, I boiled them in chicken broth seasoned with salt, pepper, and chives (in the story the Matzo Ball Man, is invited by a poor couple, to "share" in their very thin chicken soup).



I have no idea if I did them right, or not, but it was an intriguing process. The children enjoyed watching them puff up in the pot. And, we were very interested to learn, that matzo meal is just crumbled up matzo bread, kind of like cracker crumbs.

Not being sure if the children would like, or even try, the matzo balls, I also made sandwiches, and apples slices, as a backup for lunch, and mixed up a batch of matzo bread (3 cups flour, 3/4 water, and 1/4 olive oil), to make into gingerbread-style men.

Our dough was not kosher, by any means, but it's as close as we get, and the little ones enjoyed helping cut out the men.

Then, they sprinkled them with sugar, and cinnamon, and we baked them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.

They weren't too sure about the finished product.

I don't think matzo is going to replace gingerbread, as a favorite treat for the children.

But, two out of six them, enjoyed the matzo balls (a rave review for a new food in our house), and even asked for more.

It's great to be a homeschooler.