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This matzo toffee recipe is what some people (kinda insensitively, in my opinion) have come to call "matzo crack." Stacked with gooey salty caramel and melted chocolate, it's downright ridiculously easy to make. This recipe comes together in a snap and stores fantastically, so you can snack now and gift some later too. Whether you're plating it for a Passover crowd or sneaking pieces straight from the pan to pre-game Hanukkah, it knocks the flavor and texture out of the dang park without causing harm to animals.
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Credit where credit is due: Marcy Goldman came up with the original matzo brittle- yep, the one some call "matzo crack" back in 1985. A baker and food writer, she was just trying to make a Passover dessert her picky toddler would actually eat (you can relate, right?), turning a classic soda cracker toffee recipe into a Passover-friendly version. She first shared her soon-to-become viral recipe in the Montreal Gazette in 1986, and it later ended up in her cookbook, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.
What's extra legit about this version: vegan butter and brown sugar flooding every part of that matzo in the best, sticky-fingered way possible. Serve it with vegan flourless chocolate cake for peak rich aunt energy or bring it to the Chanukah lineup with vegan sufganiyot and rugelach just to remind everyone who's bringing desserts from now on.
Somewhere out there, a candy bar just sensed a disturbance in the force from this recipe's existence and started sweating. Now let's make some hyper-good vegan matzo toffee already!
Another great recipe! This one is a huge hit. Crunchy sweet and salty 😋
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🥰 Why you'll adore this matzo toffee recipe
✊ Vegan AF : This one's totally dairy-free, egg-free, and kosher. Just like all of my vegan dessert recipes this somehow tastes sinful anyway. 🤷♂️
⏱ Lazy-Genius Level Easy: You'll be done before your oven even cools off. No candy thermometer, no anxiety, just mix, pour, bake, and start eating too many pieces while you play boggle with your kids.
🛒 Grocery Store Friendly: Everything here is basic pantry mainstays- matzo, chocolate, sugar, and pecans. Nothing you have to order from a science museum gift shop, f'real.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Hundreds of my taste-testing cult friends have made and devoured all of my vegan recipes before I share them with you!
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🍮 Matzo Toffee Ingredients
Pecans
Alright, listen, toast your pecans. Don't skip it. Toasting them adds that more-pronounced flavor that makes people ask what your secret is (spoiler: it's just heat lol). If you're not into pecans, walnuts, crushed peanuts, or chopped almonds can sub in.
Matzo
Every Passover, my dad would bring my sister and I to the Streit's factory in the Lower East Side. We'd watch those ancient clanking machines spit out matzo and get to eat hot fresh slices as we watched the matzos cool as they hung from conveyor belts that passed them all around the production room. Such a core memory.
Probably because of this, Streit's has my loyalty forever, but Yehuda or Manischewitz can be used just fine for this too.
Shmura matzo? Nah. Honestly, trying this recipe with shmura matzo is like putting lipstick on a pig (even though, yes, I love pigs).
Gluten-free matzo sheets can totally work, though they are a bit more fragile and can sometimes break down into smaller pieces. Still perfectly yummy though, if you hate gluten, or whatever.
Vegan Butter
Unsalted butter is what most recipes call for. I'm an Earth Balance loyalist, because it has the most dairy-like flavor. Trader Joe's has a cheaper vegan butter, just a bit annoying to measure with unmarked packaging. Or make your own (yes, I literally teach you how in my Vegan Dairy Crash Course).
Brown Sugar
Brown sugar caramelizes into a glossy, chewy dream while adding that hint of molasses complexity. Coconut sugar or palm sugar can sub if you're living that alt-sugar life. If you keep a more stripped down pantry, plain sugar and a tiny couple of drops of molasses can be used in place of the brown stuff.
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Semisweet chocolate chips melt easily and make this effortless to pull off. Just use chips that have between 55-65% cacao.
And if you've got leftovers, don't snack on them you greedy friggin' fiend. Throw em into some vegan chocolate babka or rock out some hazelnut truffles.
Coarse Sea Salt
The chunkier the flakes, the better. Fleur de sel is a great option to use, or something thinner and flakier salt if you've got it.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
📖 How to make caramel matzo brittle
You came here for chocolate toffee matzo, not for a dang TED Talk, so let's get right to it. Scroll to speedrun the full recipe card, or stick around and let me walk you through each deliciously dangerous step.
Step One
Pecan You Feel the Love Tonight:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out the chopped pecans in a single thin layer. Toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes until fragrant. Remove and set aside.
Step Two
Mattzo Damon:
Arrange the matzo sheets in a single layer on a separate baking sheet (or sheetS), ready for their caramel destiny.
Step Three
Whoever Melt it Dealt it:
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the vegan butter until fully melted.
Step Four
The Least Jewish Guy I know- CaraMel Gibson:
Add the dark brown sugar to the melted butter and stir constantly until it comes to a gentle boil. Maintain a simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring continuously, then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
Step Five
Hot Toffee Summer:
Immediately pour the hot toffee mixture evenly over the matzo sheets, spreading it to coat completely. Sprinkle the toasted pecans on top and bake for 10 minutes.
✅ Use a basting brush or offset spatula to help any caramel that is running off the matzos back on top so it soaks in and permeates the matzo.
Step Six
Choc Norris:
Remove the tray from the oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the hot layers of matzo. Return the chocolate sprinkled matzo to the oven for 3 minutes, then spread the melted chocolate into a smooth, even layer.
Step Seven
Saltered States
Add a sprinkle of salt evenly on top of the rich chocolate. Allow the toffee to cool completely at room temperature until the chocolate sets and becomes crunchy toffee.
Step Eight
Breaking Bad:
Break into pieces and serve.
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💡Serving Ideas
Other vegan passover ideas?
Obviously, some vegan matzo ball soup and vegan potato kugel if you're chasing that "retirement in Boca" aesthetic, and don't skip charoset and tzimmes unless you hate being happy.
But matzo toffee isn't just for the high holidays! It makes a nice easy make-ahead dessert for any time of the year.
Have it for dessert after a bowl of vegan borscht with vegan pierogies, vegan blintzes, vegan challah (or round challah if it's Rosh Hashanah).
And because your self-control expired 2 paragraphs ago, bring in some of my vegan sufganiyot, vegan flourless chocolate cake, or vegan rugelach and have yourself a downright Hebrew Viennese table already.
👉 Top tips
- Simmer the Toffee Long Enough: Keep that butter-sugar situation bubbling for 3 to 4 minutes. Pulling it too early gives you grainy toffee that sticks to your teeth, whereas if you cook it super long, it can be runny and greasy.
- Always Line the Pan: Use parchment paper instead of aluminum foil. Toffee is clingy AF and will glue itself to metal. This in turn makes your cleanup about as much fun as hanging out with your Zaide while he watches Fiddler on the Roof (again) on max. volume because he can't find his hearing aid.
- Cool Completely Before Breaking: Let the tray rest at room temperature until fully set. Rushing the cooling in the fridge or freezer can cause the chocolate to bloom and turn grayish, and can sometimes make the matzo absorb condensation and become soggy.
- Spread the Toffee Evenly: Work quickly when pouring the buttery toffee over the matzo bark to coat every inch. Use a rubber basting brush or an offset spatula to keep scooping run-off caramel back on top so it absorbs into the matzo.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
You probably spread it too early or too hot, or worse- got water into your chocolate somehow. Let the chips melt on the toffee for 2-3 minutes to soften naturally before spreading them into a roughly smooth layer.
Always line your pan with parchment paper. Toffee sticks harder than a bad ex, and parchment keeps you from chiseling dessert off your bakeware.
Definitely. Chopped almonds, pistachios, or crushed pretzels (outside of passover time, of course) add crunch, while shredded coconut is cool for some folks, but sacrilege to others. Some folks even ad wrapped chocolate gelt pieces, but in my opinion, that's a bit tacky. Just stick to toppings that stay firm and don't melt into the chocolate.
Semi-sweet or dark chocolate (55%-65% cocoa ) is the sweet spot. It melts evenly, and balances the purely-sweet caramelized sugar.
If it even lasts that long, just keep it in an airtight container at room temp for up to 6 days. Stack it with parchment paper so it doesn't fuse into one massive caramel monolith.
✌️You'll love these vegan Passover recipes too:
Learn the secrets to perfect falafel in this fun cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Matzo Toffee Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup pecans chopped
- 5 sheets unsalted matzo
- ¾ cup vegan butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ teaspoon coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out the chopped pecans in a single layer. Toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes just until fragrant. Remove and set aside.
- Place the matzo sheets in a single layer on a separate baking sheet.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the vegan butter.
- Add the brown sugar to the melted butter and stir continuously until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Maintain a simmer over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
- Immediately pour the hot toffee mixture evenly over the matzo sheets, spreading to cover completely. Sprinkle the toasted pecans over the top. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove the tray from the oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the hot layers of matzo.
- Return the chocolate sprinkled matzo to the oven for 3 minutes, then spread the melted chocolate into a somewhat smooth, even layer.
- Sprinkle the coarse sea salt over the top. Allow to cool completely at room temperature until the chocolate sets.
- Break into pieces and serve, or store at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
Keep that butter-sugar mix going for 3 to 4 minutes until it's thick and all sugar is melted. Go too long and it turns into greasy syrup. 📜 Matzo Toffee Welding Issues
Line that pan with parchment, not foil. Toffee clings hard and will fuse to metal. Parchment saves the day (and your pan) once again! 🥶 The Chilluminati
Let it cool to room temp until it is fully set. Tossing it in the fridge makes the chocolate go gray and can make the matzo soggy. 🫠 Matzo, Matzo Man
Work quickly when pouring the buttery toffee over the matzo bark to coat every inch. Use a rubber basting brush or an offset spatula to keep scooping run-off caramel back on top so it absorbs into the matzo.
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Melanie Stern says
Another great recipe! This one is a huge hit. Crunchy sweet and salty 😋
Holly says
Delicious! a great combination of crunchy, salty, sweet and chocolate. I cut the recipe down to just one matzo because I was making this for myself which was pretty easy to do.