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Strudel Dough I (D)
Source: "Sugar," a cooking show shown on FoodTV Canada, with chef Anna Olson
Yield: Dough for 1 24"-long strudel

1-1/4 cups hot water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash vanilla
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
4 cups bread flour
Melted butter

Mix sugar and water to get a syrupy liquid. Add salt, vanilla, and butter. Add bread flour in 1-cup increments (not all-purpose or pastry flour, you want the gluten for the dough to stretch well).

Mix starting slowly, then raising it to higher speed until dough comes together and pulls away from bowl. Dough then needs to rest for a few hours.

Dough should be at room temperature to work. Use back of hands to stretch and pull dough until dough is thin and translucent. (The demonstration showed the dough, once it began to achieve a good size, stretched over the edge of the tablecloth and pulled out and up across the table to stretch.)

Once dough is stretched out, cover surface with melted butter. Scatter with cookie/bread crumbs to absorb extra liquid from fruit/savoury filling. Fill with sweet or savoury contents.

Use the tablecloth to roll the strudel over the filling, brush with egg wash and bake 25 to 30 minutes at 350°F.

Poster's Notes:
This recipe was given on "Sugar," a cooking show shown on FoodTV Canada with chef Anna Olson. I haven't made it myself but I find her recipes very reliable. I'm anxious to try it as strudel has always defeated me (despite my having my mother's recipe and watched her making it innumerable times during her life.)

I think that you could substitute either oil or, in a savoury strudel, schmaltz for the butter both in the dough and on the surface. The big news for me in this recipe was using the extra-gluten flour and letting the dough rest for that long after the initial mixing.

Posted by Shayna Kravetz

Nutritional Info Per Serving: N/A