[Avodah] Pesach bread

[Zev Sero]

On 25/03/2012 9:50 AM, Lisa Liel wrote:
> I was talking to a woman in the grocery store on Friday, and she
> mentioned that she makes Pesach bread using matzah cake meal. Bagels,
> too, though she doesn't boil them because they fall apart when she tries.
> My question is, is this legit?

I wouldn't have thought this would work very well.  Bread that doesn't
rise isn't very good, and this wouldn't rise, which is the whole point.
But if you can make something edible, then why not?

> It sounds like the kind of thing gebroks  avoidance was invented to prevent

Not really.  The origin of gebrochts is in the ShuT printed at the end
of vol 6 of SA Harav, #6.  He writes that recently, "in the last 20 years
or more", a new hiddur has taken on, of making the matzos quickly instead
of working the dough for a long time as had been done before.  I assume
he is referring to the hiddur we all know, of making each batch within 18
minutes.  He lauds this hiddur but says that there is a down side: as a
result of this speed the dough may not get thoroughly kneaded, and it's
possible that some flour remains unincorporated into it, and survived the
baking, and will become chametz if it gets wet.  So he recommends that
one take care not to allow water to contact the matzah, just in case.


> but since I don't keep gebroks, is there any reason I shouldn't try doing this?

I don't see any halachic reason not to, just culinary ones.  And what
do I know?  If your friends says it produces something edible and worth
the effort, then why not try it and see?


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon