Faigas Matza Pie Crust Recipes

Steps:

• Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse matzo to a fine crumb (you should have 1 1/2 cups). Add salt, coconut oil, sugar, and water. Pulse to combine, then press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake until light golden, 16 to 18 minutes. Let cool completely before filling with your favorite kosher curd and meringue topping or chocolate ganache.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
• Mix together salt, caraway seeds, oregano, garlic salt, ground black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes in a small bowl.
• Mix ground beef and eggs in a mixing bowl until thoroughly incorporated. Add Parmesan cheese and seasoning mixture to beef; combine. Press ground beef mixture into a 12x17-inch pan, spread out evenly.
• Bake in the preheated oven until meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Drain grease.
• Set oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and turn on the oven's broiler.
• Sprinkle 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese over baked meat, followed by tomato sauce in an even layer. Sprinkle another 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese over the sauce and top with slices of pepperoni. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese over pizza.
• Broil until cheese is melted, bubbling, and lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.
• Cook onion in oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, put spinach in a sieve and press out as much liquid as possible. Add spinach to onion and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1/3 cup dill, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
• Purée cottage cheese in a blender with milk, eggs, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper until smooth. Reserve 2 cups in a bowl and stir remainder into spinach with 1 cup feta.
• Stack matzos in a deep dish and pour reserved cottage-cheese mixture over them. Let stand 15 minutes to soften.
• Arrange 2 soaked matzos side by side in a generously oiled 13- by 9- by 2-inch (3-quart shallow) baking dish. Pour in half of spinach filling. Cover with 2 more matzos, then pour in remaining filling. Put remaining 2 matzos on top and pour any remaining cottage-cheese mixture over them. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup feta.
• Bake, uncovered, until golden and set, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then serve sprinkled with remaining 2 tablespoons dill.

Steps:

• Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter, and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream until dough just holds together (no longer than 30 seconds).
• Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days).

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
• Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes, or until the onion has softened. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper. Raise heat to high and cook for 5-6 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender and all the liquid has evaporated. Add the cream cheese and stir it into the mushrooms until completely incorporated as a sauce. Pour in the stock and blend it in.
• Add the parsley and thyme to pan. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by half and is thick. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the Parmesan cheese. Spoon the mixture into a 6-cup casserole dish.
• Soak the matzo sheets in cold water for 2-3 minutes, or until softened. Carefully squeeze the pieces to extract the water without breaking them. Place over the mushrooms. Brush with the melted butter. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the crust is crispy.

Steps:

• Make lamb filling:
• Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet (2 inches deep) over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté onion, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add lamb and sauté, stirring and breaking up lumps, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add two thirds of garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon ras-el-hanout with oregano, mint, pepper, and cinnamon, then sauté, stirring, 1 minute.
• Stir in 4 cups tomatoes with some of juice (reserving remaining tomatoes and juice for sauce) and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Roast eggplant and assemble pie:
• Preheat broiler.
• Toss eggplant slices with 4 tablespoons oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Brush a large shallow baking pan (1/2 to 1 inch deep) generously with oil and arrange as many slices as possible in 1 layer. Broil, in batches if necessary, 5 to 7 inches from heat, turning slices over as they brown (about halfway through broiling), until tender, 12 to 15 minutes total.
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Soak matzos, 1 or 2 at a time, in a pan of warm water until matzos are slightly softened but still hold their shape, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Let excess water drip off and transfer matzos to paper towels or kitchen towels to drain.
• Arrange 2 matzos side by side in a generously oiled 13- by 9- by 2-inch (3-quart) baking dish to nearly cover bottom. Spread 3 cups lamb filling over matzos in pan. Arrange 2 matzos side by side on top, then spread remaining filling over them. Arrange eggplant slices in 1 layer over filling (overlapping slices slightly if necessary), then arrange remaining 2 matzos on top and brush with oil. Bake, covered with foil, 20 minutes, then remove foil and continue to bake until filling is hot, about 10 minutes more.
• Make tomato sauce while pie bakes:
• Purée remaining 2 cups chopped tomatoes with juice in a blender. Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a 10- to 12-inch skillet over moderate heat, then cook cayenne, remaining garlic, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon each ras-el-hanout and salt, stirring, until garlic is golden, about 1 minute. Add tomato purée and sugar and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 4 to 6 minutes.
• *Available at specialty foods shops and Kalustyan's (800-352-3451).

Steps:

• Mix all ingredients together and press in a pie pan.

Steps:

• Soak matzas in cold water 5 minutes.
• Drain and squeeze dry.
• Heat shortening or oil.
• Add matzas and heat until dry in the same pan.
• Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
• Pat mixture over bottom of pie plate about 1/4 inch thick.
• Fill with desired fruit filling.
• Bake in moderate oven[350 degrees] about 30 minutes.
• Yields 2 open-faced pie crusts.

Steps:

• Move an oven rack near the top of oven and preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Preheat a heavy baking sheet in the oven.
• Dust a clean work surface and a rolling pin with 1 teaspoon flour, or as needed. Place 1 cup of flour into a mixing bowl; set a timer for about 16 minutes (18 minutes maximum). Start the timer; pour the water, about 1 tablespoon at a time, into the flour. Stir the water and flour together with a fork until the dough forms a rough ball, remove the dough to the prepared work surface, knead rapidly and firmly until smooth, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Divide the dough into four equal pieces; cut each piece in half again to get 8 pieces total. Swiftly roll each piece into a ball. Roll each piece of dough out into a 5-inch pancake, dusting the top and rolling pin with flour as needed. Gradually roll the pancakes out to a size of about 8 inches, increasing the size of each by about 1 inch, then letting the dough rest for a few seconds before rolling again to the finished size. Roll from the center out. The bread rounds should be very thin. Using a fork, quickly pierce each bread about 25 times, all over, to prevent rising. The holes should go completely through the bread. Flip the bread over, and pierce each piece another 25 times with the fork.
• With at least 5 minutes left on the timer, remove the hot baking sheet from the preheated oven, and place the rounds onto the baking sheet. Place the baking sheet onto the rack near the top of the oven, and bake for 2 minutes; turn the breads over and bake an additional 2 minutes, until the matzot are lightly browned and crisp.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Lightly anoint each matzah with olive oil, using a brush, and sprinkle generously with salt.