Real Homemade Strudel Dough

* Exported from MasterCook II *

REAL HOMEMADE STRUDEL DOUGH

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breads Desserts
Rcrockett

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 cups flour
Pinch of salt
2 eggs -- beaten
1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp butter -- melted
1/4 teaspoon vinegar
3/4 cup warm milk
3/4 pound unsalted butter -- clarified


In the work bowl of a food processor, combine the flour
with the salt. Add the eggs, melted butter and vinegar and
process until well mixed. Add the milk and process until
all has been absorbed. Scrape down the sides and run the
processor for a minut e more until the dough is smooth and
elastic.

Form into a ball, flour lightly and set aside under a
turned-over bowl for 10 minutes.

Have ready a filling of your choice.

Place a cloth (an old clean bed sheet works great) over a
large table you can walk around, and flour the cloth
liberally.

On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough out into a
rectangle as lareg and flat as possible without tearing.
Place it on the floured cloth. Remove all jewelry from your
hands and wrists. Dip the backs of your hands in flour.
Form your hands into loose fists, tucking your thumbs under
your other fingers, and slide them under the dough. Gently
pull your hands away from each other and the dough will
begin to stretch between them. Toss the dough gently to
move it a bit to the right or the left, so that as your
hands move, they keep stretching the dough evenly all the
way around. You will need to walk around the table as the
dough gets increasingly larger. Stretch the dough into as
thin a sheet as possible. Do not pinch the dough, which can
tear it; rather, move your fists in gentle waves from the
center toward the edge, all the way around the dough,
allowing the weight of the dough and the movement of your
hands to stretch and thin the dough.

Eventually the sheet of dough will become so large that you
will not be able to support it on your hands alone. Smooth
it out on the table and, walking around the table, work
each section of dough with loose fists, as previously
described, until the dough is so thin you can see the
shadow of your hands through it. If the edges of the dough
are still thick, ease them out gently with your fingertips.
Trim off any thick edges that remain. The dough can be cut
in half to make it easier to roll into strudel.

Brush the dough with some of the clarified butter and fold
in half. Brush with more clarified butter and spread the
filling across the dough, mounding more of it along one of
the longer sides. Roll up jelly roll-style, starting at the
edge where the filling is mounded. This is easily done by
lifting the cloth along the side you want the roll to
start. The sheet of dough will naturally roll up on itself
into a long thin log. Brush the outside with more clarified
butter, cut in four lengths, which will fit on a sheet pan,
and slide onto two buttered sheet pans.


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NOTES :
(Makes about 1 pound strudel dough