Strudel Dough
Strudel dough is not rolled, it is pulled by hand across a cloth-covered table until the weave of the cloth shows through it. Two things make that possible: high-protein flour and warmth. Cold dough tears, warm dough stretches, which is why the bowl it rests under is rinsed with boiling water first.
- Prep
- 45 min
- Rest
- 1 h
- Total
- 1 h 45 min
- Servings
- 8
- Level
- Challenging
- Per serving
- 230 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: dough for 1 large strudel, 8 servings
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Knead the dough
Combine the flour, salt, warm water, oil, egg and vinegar and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and glossy. It should be softer than a noodle dough.
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Step 2: Slam it on the table
Lift the dough and throw it down hard on the worktop 20–30 times. This lines up the gluten strands better than kneading ever will, and those strands are what hold the stretched sheet.
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Step 3: An hour under a warm bowl
Shape a ball, brush it with oil and cover it with a bowl rinsed in boiling water. One hour at room temperature: cold dough tears, warm dough stretches.
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Step 4: Set up the table
Spread a cotton cloth about 60×80 cm over the table and dust it with flour. You will stretch the dough on this cloth and use it to roll the strudel up.
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Step 5: Roll it out first
Roll the ball out to a 30 cm circle with a pin — beyond that the pin is no help at all.
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Step 6: Stretch it by hand
Slide the backs of your hands under the dough and move them from the centre outwards, turning the sheet as you go. Fingertips make holes, the backs of your hands do not. Keep going until the weave of the cloth shows through.
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Step 7: Brush with butter
Trim off the thick edges and brush the whole sheet evenly with melted butter: it is what keeps the layers apart as you roll and gives the flaky finish. Fill and roll immediately, before the dough dries.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Check the protein on the packet: you want at least 12 g per 100 g. On weak flour the sheet tears halfway through the stretch.
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Tip
A hole in the middle is patched with a trimmed edge brushed with butter. Stretching the same spot a second time is hopeless — the gluten there has already given up.
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Variation
The dough works without the egg too: use another 20 ml of water instead. The baked strudel comes out a little paler and more brittle.
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Storage
A stretched sheet does not keep — it dries out in 5 minutes. A rolled, unbaked strudel, on the other hand, freezes for a month and bakes from frozen with an extra 10 minutes.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 8 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 230 kcal | 1,840 kcal |
| Protein | 5 g | 40 g |
| Fat | 14 g | 112 g |
| Carbohydrates | 23 g | 184 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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