Passover Matzah Chocolate Toffee

This year we're having some difficulty cooking during Passover, since we're going through a kitchen renovation. But we made this while at my parents' house.

This is what happens when you read Bon Appetit on the airplane. You get inspired to cook! Overall this toffee tastes delicious. However, next time I would use LESS of the caramel mixture because it went on so thick (and seeped under the matzah making it caramel on both sides) that it's a little hard to chew. And we're all worried we're going to lose a filling on it!


Every year I make some form of this - using a different recipe each year. And then I have amnesia, forgetting how much work it is! But if you're up for it, here's my version of the Bon Appetit recipe.

Matzah Chocolate-Toffee
-5 sheets of matzah
-1 3/4 cups of sugar (that's what they call for - I think you should reduce the amount of sugar and butter to make less)
-3/4 cups of margarine (you can use butter, but if you want the recipe to be "parve" - so you can eat it with milk or meat if you keep kosher, use parve margarine)
-1/4 cup of honey
-1/2 to 3/4 cup of whatever chopped and toasted nuts you want (The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of sliced almonds, but that wasn't enough, and we didn't have almonds. We used pecans and walnuts - watch them in the toaster so you don't burn them like I did)
-5 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (we used baking chocolate, but chips work as well)
-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (do NOT leave this out - it makes such a difference - and it's not too spicy)
-1 1/2 tsp coarse salt

Line a rimmed dish with matzah - try not to overlap it or it's hard to get the caramel spread around. I recommend you break up the matzah so it's already in small pieces and you don't have to do it later when it's covered in caramel and chocolate.

For the caramel sauce, stir together the sugar, honey, margarine and 1/4 cup of water in a heavy saucepan over low heat until it's dissolved. Then increase the heat to med-high until it boils. Don't stir, but swirl the pan around occasionally. Use a pastry brush dipped in water to wipe down the insides where the sugar sticks. Boil until amber in color (which is difficult to see because it's frothy white). The recipe says 13-15 minutes, but I boiled more than 20 and it still wasn't as dark as I wanted, but I was afraid it would burn.

Pour caramel sauce over the matzah and immediate sprinkle on the nuts and salts so they'll stick (or you can do that after the chocolate). While the caramel is cooling, melt the chocolate (in a double boiler or microwave - don't do what I did and melt it in a pan on the stove where it will turn goopy - oops!). Drizzle that over the matzah so it looks pretty. Let it cool (we had to put it in the fridge for the chocolate to harden) - then eat!