As far as I'm concerned, Austrian-Hungarian pastry reigns supreme among life's delicious eating. Not only does it look and taste delicious, it satisfies something in the genes. Member Bob Unger tells me that on his trips to Burgenland, he eats poppy seed strudel every day, so I'm not alone in my preference. Mehlspeisen (or things made with flour) are my favorite foods. One of the best of these is raised (yeast) strudel. There are two main types of filling (although I have heard of others) remembered from my grandmother's kitchen: poppy seed (Mohn) and nut (Nüssen). These are normally not easy to make, unless you are well experienced in baking with yeast. In addition, poppy seeds and nuts must be ground with sugar and made into a spreadable filling. You need a grinder and a source of bulk poppy seeds.
With the advent of the bread machine and canned fillings (e.g. SOLO Brand) available from baking section of many supermarkets, making a good raised strudel is easy.
Have all ingredients room temperature before starting.
- 1 cup warm milk (scalded - don't boil)
- 1/4 cup softened butter (microwave)
- 1 egg beaten
- 3-1/4 cups of flour (high gluten or bread flour is best)
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. or more lemon rind grated (I like a little more)
- 1/2 tsp. cardamom (optional but gives a nice "Danish Pastry" flavor)
- 1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
- 2 cans SOLO Poppy Seed Filling
- 1 cup, more or less, raisins
Put dough ingredients in bread machine in order applicable to your machine (mine asks for all wet ingredients first - yeast last in a depression in the flour). Process on dough cycle (mix, knead and one rise).
Prepare filling, open 2 cans SOLO poppy seed mix. (SOLO also makes an almond mix which makes a delicious nut strudel, although the traditional recipe calls for walnuts, ground with sugar, and a little warm milk as opposed to almonds.) Drain 1 cup of raisins which have been soaked in rum or water (soaking is optional) and remove liquid before using.
When dough cycle is complete, remove dough to a floured surface. Divide dough into two halves. Roll each half to a rectangle about 9" x 13". Spread each half with one can of the filling, sprinkle with half of the raisins. Roll up each spread rectangle as for jelly roll and place on greased pan or cookie sheet seam side down. Make sure ends are sealed (pinch dough) so filling won't run out. Let rise once, covered with a dish towel in warm place until about double (about 35-45 minutes). Brush top with a little extra melted butter and bake in 375°F oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Strudel should be brown on top. Makes two strudels. Dust top with powdered sugar when cool and slice 3/4 inch or so to serve. Freezes well and also makes nice broiler toast (cut thick), great spread with butter or peanut butter.
As stated, there are variations, so you can experiment. One suggestion is to add well drained or dried cherries or apricots, with or without raisins. You can also try other dried fruit, plumped. My grandmother sometimes added melted chocolate to half of the dough, rolled it out, put the two rolled sheets together and made a black and white strudel. None of these variations are as original as the poppy seed and nut. SOLO makes some other fillings, like strawberry and apricot, with which I want to experiment. The SOLO fillings were designed for Hebraic Hamantaschen (filled pocket cookies) and the filling has a little more sugar than the strudel usually calls for but works just fine. A delectable pastry. The filling also makes a great poppy seed or almond cake (recipes back of label).
My cousin, Helena Gibiser Gilly, Poppendorf, served us the nut strudel formed and baked into large "kipfel"-like crescents (about the size of a croissant). They were great and could be made easily from the above recipe, just form differently and maybe bake less.
If you don't have a bread machine, you can use the same ingredients (make a yeast sponge with yeast, warm milk, flour and a little sugar before mixing the other ingredients) and knead by hand until dough is silky. Takes a while and you must know the feel of the dough. Let the dough rise twice before rolling it out. Finish as above. Gute essen!