Hungarian Strudel

Normally I buy the readymade rétes pastry sheets which can be easily found near the cheeses/milk frozen section of any supermarkets. It tremendously cut the preparation time to about 15minutes and you can enjoy these wonderful desserts.

Or taking some efforts, it can be make from scratch:-

The dough are made from:-
- 1/2 kg flour
- 250g lard
- 1/2 tbsp. vinegar

Salt and pepper (for savory version either cheese or cabbage).

Steps:-
Combine the lard, vinegar and 2 tbsp. flour.

Combine the remaining flour with enough salted lukewarm water to form a workable dough, neither too sticky nor too stiff.

Knead it until it comes away from the sides of the bowl, then divide into 16 pieces.

Roll one piece into one inch thick sheet and brush it lightly with the lard mixture.

Roll out another piece and place it on top of the previous one. Brush with the lard mixture.

Continue until you have four layers, but do not brush the top layer with lard.

Cover the layered pastry with a bowl and let rest for 30 minutes.

Repeat the process with the remaining 12 pieces of dough so that you end up with four layered “tortes” which will each be rolled out separately.


Rolling the dough:-
Lay a table cloth on the table. Sprinkle lightly with flour. Place one of the layered dough portions on it and start stretching the dough with your hands. If you are working alone, move around the table, always stretching the sides of the dough towards the edge of the table.
If the dough is too elastic, let it rest for 5-10 minutes.

The dough should be stretched until paper thin. Any thick parts left around the edges should be cut off. I really find this 'paper thin' criteria very demanding, it really takes a lot of skill!

Sprinkle the filling over the pastry in an 8-10 cm (3-4”) strip. Fold the hanging edge of the pastry over the filling with the help of the table cloth.

Fill the other half of the pastry the same way and roll together. Cut the rétes into pieces that will fit onto a greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with melted lard.

Bake in a 180° C oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until crisp and golden.

So the fillings can range from apple, walnut, poppyseed (mak is the hungarian name), sour cherry, cottage cheese. Our favourite is the cottage cheese:-

Cottage cheese
Combine 900 g (2 lb.) cottage cheese with 30 g (1 oz.) vanilla sugar, 3 eggs, 2 tbsp. lard, raisins and sugar to taste.


Apple
Grate some apples, flavor with sugar and cinnamon.

Walnut
Mix ground walnuts with sugar and a few drops of milk.

Poppyseed
Mix ground poppyseed with sugar, a few drops of water and the grated zest of a lemon.

Sour cherry
Pit the cherries; combine them with breadcrumbs and sugar.

Cabbage
Chop the cabbage and braise slowly in a covered pan with salt and pepper.