Matzo Buttercrunch earns a place on the Passover dessert table

On Passover, dessert options can feel limited. No leavened foods are allowed, so the usual recipes for cakes, cookies and the like are off the table (literally).

Flourless desserts and/or desserts made with matzo meal are fair game, and there are some great recipes out there (and plenty of not-so-great ones). For me, there is only one non-negotiable, must-have Passover dessert: chocolatecovered caramel matzo.

Or, as it's more commonly known, Matzo Buttercrunch.

The talented baker Marcy Goldman came up with and named this recipe in the mid 1980s, and printed it in her first cookbook, “The Treasury of Jewish Cooking.” It became a word-of-mouth sensation, shared from cook to cook first on paper and now all over the internet.

Sometimes, it's called Matzo Crack (it's that addicting).

But there are still folks who have not experienced it, and I can't bear that thought.

The basic premise: You make a simple caramel/toffee mixture with melted margarine or butter and sugar, with a bit of salt. This mixture is poured and spread over sheets of matzo, and then baked to further caramelize it and cause it to set. Chocolate chips are sprinkled over the hot, caramel-covered matzo, allowed to soften, and then spread in a top layer of melted chocolate, which cools and firms up.

I like to finish with some flaky sea salt or chopped peanuts, sprinkled on right after you spread the melted chocolate. (Make sure there are no allergy concerns if you use nuts.)

Then, the cooled matzo is cut or broken into pieces.

A Montreal native, Goldman trained as a pastry chef. “We learned that just because something is Passover-appropriate doesn't mean it deserves a spot on the table. It has to taste fantastic,” she says.

“It's a misconception that we have to endure Passover food, especially the baking.”

There is a similar, non-Passover, chocolate- and toffeecovered cracker dessert, usually made with saltines or soda crackers. There are also versions made with graham crackers. Looking to appease her picky toddler, Goldman wondered if would work with matzo. And it surely did.

“I never dreamed it would become so viral,” she says of the recipe that's become a Passover

dessert staple/phenomenon.

Goldman makes her Matzo Buttercrunch throughout the month leading up to Passover, explaining that the first batch never makes it to the Seder dinner. Over the years, she has played with lots of versions, a favorite being one with white chocolate marbleized with apricot jam. Pistachios are also a popular topping, she says.

Tips

• Before you even begin making the caramel, prep your rimmed baking sheet. Line it with aluminum foil, covering the pan completely, including up and over the edges. Then place a sheet of parchment over the foil. This keeps the caramel from spreading under the foil and makes the matzo easy to pull off of the pan.