Traditional Hand Made Strudel

We call it “Retes” in Hungarian, a very popular dessert in the countryside. Mothers, grandmothers used to make it by hand, the dough is basic and ingredients available within the home pantry and the garden. The skill that needed to make the Strudel is past down from generations.

This is something I wanted to try to make a long time ago, but was afraid to do.

Ingredients:

(Makes 4x 400mm long Strudels)

500g “00” Flour (Retesliszt in Hungary) - the quality of the flour determines the strechability.

1 large whole Egg

1 tablespoon of Lard fat

1 teaspoon Salt

250ml warm water (approx)

Mix ingredients to form a dough, that is not too hard, but not too soft.

Divide the dough to two equal portions.

Cover the dough balls with a warm pot for 15minutes to rest.

Cover a large enough table top with a clean tablecloth, and spray water on it to make it dump.

Spread some flour on the dump tablecloth.

Roll out the first dough a little bit, brush the dough with melted Lard fat, then there are two ways to stretch the dough from now on.

Either you put your hands under the dough and gently pull it outwards, or lift the dough and strech it with your arms. If you strech it with the arms, be sure it does not tear. Roll it around like a pizza dough. You will need to know/feel it when to put it back on the table, and finish pulling the sides with the first method.

Once the dough is thin and see through, its ready to fill with your favorite filling.

This time, I used apple and pear with some cherries.

Spread the filling and roll it up gently, folding the two ends in to prevent spill out.

Make sure the filling is not too wet.

Brush the top with some melted Lard fat, then ready for the pre-heated 200c oven for 35-40minutes.

When done, dust with icing sugar, and serve with cream and ice cream.