This is the Austrian original made with our own homemade strudel dough,
But let's start with that cherry filling
I've got four cups of tart cherries
To which I'll add two cups of sugar
And I want to simmer this for 10 minutes
and infuse some flavor by adding two cinnamon sticks
While that simmers,
We'll make the strudel dough
So I start with a cup and a half of all-purpose flour
In addition to the all-purpose flour, I need to add
Bread flour a cup of it,
and it's that gluten that's gonna give us the stretch
that allows us to stretch this strudel dough as thin and as wide and long as we possibly can
To this I'll add a quarter teaspoon of salt and a cup of warm water
Three tablespoons of vegetable oil
I like vegetable oil in the dough because it stays nice and pliable
Then the very last ingredient
Is a half a teaspoon of cider vinegar
The intense acidity helps promote the stretch of the glutens within the dough
When kneading it and when stretching it out
So now I'll work this on a low speed
To incorporate the ingredients and then increase the speed just by one speed
to start kneading it
I keep my hands floured
You can see how soft it is
So just with a back-and-forth motion
Push the dough forward
Turn it 90 degrees, pull it back
And then keep repeating that motion
So you're maximizing the stretch within the flour
So you have to let this dough relax for a full hour
But you want to keep it at room temperature
It stretches easily when it's still a little one
I'll just set this aside to rest
and then I can pickin up the cherry filling in the meantime
Now that the filling has had time to simmer
I can pull out the cinnamon sticks
and I simply used corn starch to thicken up the cherry filling
I use three tablespoons of corn starch
You can't add corn starch dry to a hot mixture
It'll just clump up
You have to create what's called a slurry
and that's a mixture of the corn starch
With some cool water, not warm water
I just mix that with a little fork just a couple tablespoons
And now I can pour this liquid into the cherry filling
It's great to watch this transformation
When you pour in the corn starch
It makes the whole mixture cloudy
But once it hits 212 F, that's when corn starch activates
And it turns all beautifully clear and shiny
And then you take it off the heat,
and you want to cool it down at the very least to room temperature
But you can make this filling a day ahead and work with it cold from the fridge
So now I have a chilled cherry filling
And I have a batch of the strudel dough that's now fully relaxed
So now for the fun part stretching out the strudel pastry
The tool of choice for stretching a strudel dough is a tablecloth
By spreading it out on your work surface
You have a nice even flexible space with a dusting of flour
Your strudel dough won't stick and it makes rolling up the filled strudel so easy
And my friend Mia, a fellow pastry chef
Showed me this trick when you're starting to stretch your strudel dough
Throw it around a little bit, and it starts the stretching and now a little patience
But start working from the middle to the outer edges
I like to use the back of my hands, and you just keep working and stretching
Be gentle
If you don't feel it moving
Just let it relax again remember with every stretch,
you're reworking those glutens again, so just take your time
And when I hit a certain point of stretchiness
I'll actually use the corner of the table
and hook it on to the edge of the table
There we go, I think we're in good shape here
I've got 1/3 of a cup of melted butter
Now i like to just do this free form get my hands in there
and pour the butter
Over the surface of the pastry and you can use a brush
Or just massage it in with your hands
But the added element is the sprinkling of breadcrumbs
Phyllo pastry is drier than this soft tender strudel dough
So you need the bread crumbs to keep
the rolled layers of the pastry separate
And now for the cooled cherry filling
I spread that along one end of the strudel pastry
And now for the fun part
The first roll,
I fold over beautiful delicates strudel dough over the cherry filling
Because you don't want to compact the strudel too much.
Just the loose lifting of the tablecloth
Rolls it beautifully
And actually use the cloth to lift the strudel over
And then consistent with the other strudels I made an egg wash brush
On the surface, promotes browning and shine
And now to the oven for 40 to 45 minutes at 375 F
Oh! Beautiful
You can just tell by looking at it, how flaky it's going to be
Now you have to let your strudel cool
for about 20 to 30 minutes before you slice it
Mostly because the filling is so hot
I have a strudel that's had that time to chill
I like to plate it
But before that
A strudel is not complete without a generous dusting of icing sugar on top
I like to use a bread knife to cut through the flaky layers
On an angle if you can
And there it is
You can see all those distinct flaky layers
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