Strudel

Strudel

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A strudel (/ˈstruːdəl/, German: [ˈʃtʁuːdəl]) is a type of layered pastry with a— most often sweet—filling. It became popular in the 18th century through the Habsburg Empire. Strudel is most often associated with Austrian cuisine but is also a traditional pastry in the whole area of the former Austro-Hungarian empire.

The oldest Strudel recipes (a Millirahmstrudel and a turnip strudel) are from 1696, in a handwritten cookbook at the Vienna City Library (formerly Wiener Stadtbibliothek).^[1] The pastry descends from similar Near Eastern pastries (see baklava and Turkish cuisine).^[2]

Etymology

Strudel is an English loanword from German.^[3] The word derives from the German word Strudel, which in Middle High German literally means 'whirlpool' or 'eddy'.^[4][5][6]

In Hungary, it is known as rétes, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia as štrudla or savijača, in Slovenia as štrudelj or zavitek, in the Czech Republic as závin or štrúdl,^[7] in Poland and Romania as ștrudel, and in Slovakia as štrúdľa or závin.

The pastry

The best-known strudels are Apfelstrudel (German for apple strudel) and Topfenstrudel (with sweet soft quark cheese, in Austrian German Topfen), followed by the Millirahmstrudel (Milk-cream strudel, Milchrahmstrudel). Other strudel types include sour cherry (Weichselstrudel), sweet cherry, nut filled (Nussstrudel), Apricot Strudel, Plum Strudel, poppy seed strudel (Mohnstrudel), and raisin strudel.^[8] There are also savory strudels incorporating spinach, cabbage, pumpkin, and sauerkraut,^[9] and versions containing meat fillings like the (Lungenstrudel) or (Fleischstrudel).

Traditional Hungarian, Austrian, and Czech Strudel pastry is different from strudels elsewhere, which are often made from puff pastry. The traditional Strudel pastry dough is very elastic. It is made^[10] from flour with a high gluten content, water, oil and salt, with no sugar added. The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly with the help of a clean linen tea towel^[11] or kitchen paper.^[12] Purists say that it should be so thin that you can read a newspaper through it. A legend has it that the Austrian Emperor's perfectionist cook decreed that it should be possible to read a love letter through it. The thin dough is still laid out on a tea towel, and the filling is spread on it. The dough with the filling on top is rolled up carefully with the help of the tea towel and baked in the oven.

The original wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strudel