Recipe: Nana’s Passover Buns
It’s around the week before Passover that my sisters and I turn into a trio of seven-year-old boys. That’s because it’s time to pull out our grandmother’s revered Passover recipe that we lovingly call Nana’s Buns. It makes us giggle every time we say it (no disrespect to Nana), and that’s fun, so we say it a lot. You’d think that after blankety-blank years it wouldn’t be so funny anymore. Nope. It just is.
Some call these rolls, or popovers, but they’re neither of those. They’re sweet, dense and chewy, and a lot more moist than you’d expect coming out of three cups of matzah meal. (The ten eggs don’t hurt, either.) They’re certainly not bread like, but so much better than trying to bite into your leftover brisket when it's sliding between two slices of crumbly matzah.
If you keep Passover — or even if you don’t — Nana’s buns are worth making. They're super easy and quick to make, and they’ll keep you from yearning for bread just because you can't have it. For me, they’re a taste of my childhood, which, apparently, I haven't outgrown very much. At least for one week each year.
Nana’s Passover Buns
Makes about 20 buns
¾ cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups cold water
10 eggs
3 cups matzah meal
1 Tbsp. potato starch (optional, to make buns higher)
1. Boil water, sugar, oil and salt.
2. After it boils, add matzah meal and stir over flame until almost dry.
3. Cool
4. Add eggs, one at a time.
5. Mix together well with hands.
6. Grease cookie sheet and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Grease hands or keep dipping hands in water to form buns. Shape buns into round balls (they flatten as they bake).
8. Bake one hour and check to make sure the bottoms don’t burn. Eat them even if the bottoms are slightly burnt, they'll still taste good.
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