Strudel Dough

Strudel is a stuffed pastry from Austria, very popular in all former Austro-Hungarian countries (Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic) and in Germany and Alsace (France). It is the most iconic Austrian and Hungarian dessert, so its dough deserves a special post. The various fillings will be in separate posts.

While preparing the book Pastries from the Past, I learned a lot about making the strudel dough, how to stretch it, and how to fill and roll it up to a strudel.

Strudel Dough is special because the dough is very thinly wrapped around a heavy filling. Therefore, the challenge of a good authentic Strudel dough is that it needs to be very thin and at the same time to be able to hold a heavy huge filling without breaking apart.

There is a belief that making Strudel dough from scratch is difficult and time-consuming.

It's not!

Many have been using Puff pastry or Phyllo dough to prepare Strudel because they can be easily bought ready-made in the store. This is completely wrong. It's prepared the same way as a noodle dough just that it calls for a lot of oil ---- the dough is left resting covered in oil for 1 hour.

The oil and the egg make the dough super elastic so that you can roll and pull it out to a very thin layer.

The Strudel is only a strudel with a strong crunchy thin layer wrapped around rich sweet fillings, like apples, nuts, cherries and poppy seeds or savory fillings like cheeses and cabbage. Only the strudel dough can take that much filling without breaking.

The following table describes the differences between Puff pastry, Phyllo and Strudel dough:

  Ingredients (for 2 Strudel rolls)

  280g flour (all-purpose)

  160ml water (lukewarm)

  2 egg yolks

  3 tbs vegetable oil

  1 tsp vinegar

  Salt

  Flour for dusting

  Instructions

  1. Add half of the flour to a mixing bowl add salt and mix well

  2. Make a well in the center and add the lukewarm water

  3. Add 2 tbs oil, egg yolks and vinegar

  4. Mix the ingredients well until smooth

  5. Add the rest of the flour and keep mixing to a smooth dough

  6. Keep kneading well and long enough until the dough is not sticky

  7. Keep kneading more on a floured surface for 10 minutes

  8. The dough should be soft enough but firm. If too soft add more flour and if too stiff add a little water

  9. Make 2 smooth balls of equal size. Cover them with oil all around

  10. Let them rest for 1 hour in a warm place

Before filling the strudel rolls (repeat for each dough ball)

  11. Roll out the dough ball on a floured surface

  12. When thin enough start to stretch the dough in the air with the back of your hands

  13. Lay it on a floured tea towel and keep stretching to a rectangle

Preparation Notes