is the German name for a pastry composed of thin sheets of dough around a soft filling (the word literally means ‘eddy’ or ‘whirlpool’). German strudel is relatively dry, a long roll, holding raisins and chopped apples, bent in a horseshoe, baked, and cut across in slices. Similar pastries are popular in much of C. and E. Europe, and are closely related to various Balkan and Middle Eastern confections also based on the same type of thin dough. This is known in English either as strudel pastry, or by its Greek name, filo.
This pastry is very important to strudel and related dishes. All countries in which it is known take great pride in it, and several claim to have invented it, the Hungarians citing flour from hard Hungarian wheat as a contributory factor in support of their claim. It is true that high-protein flour is required for strudel pastry; but the method is widely known, not only in C. Europe, but throughout the Middle East, where it is used in baklava, and notably in Turkey, which may well be the place of origin. Made from flour, egg, and a little butter mixed to a dough with water, it is kneaded until silky and rested. The dough is then placed on a floured cloth on a large table, rolled a little, and stretched by placing the hands underneath and pulling it gently towards the edge of the table until it forms a huge, thin sheet. When properly pulled out, it is said that one should be able to read a newspaper through it.
To make the pastry into a long roll, it is brushed with melted butter, scattered with breadcrumbs, and the chosen filling placed at one end of the sheet of dough. The cloth is lifted so the pastry rolls up to the other end of the table; it is curved round, brushed with more melted butter and baked.
Strudels may be eaten hot or cold. Apple strudel, the best known to W. Europeans, is a special favourite in Germany and Austria. However, Lesley Chamberlain (1989) gives a sense of how much more widespread and varied strudels actually are:
From Germany in the north, through Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia, to Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Lebanon, half the world has a passion for dishes of intricately folded pastry. The strudels of thin pastry enriched with fat are sweet in Central Europe, and sweet or savoury by the time they reach the Balkans.
Many other fillings are possible, based on different fruits, for example the cinnamon-flavoured cherry strudel, which is a Balkan favourite. Other mixtures use ground walnuts, or boiled poppyseeds, or sweetened, spiced curd cheese.
Laura Mason has written about several aspects of British food in books including Sugar Plums and Sherbet (1998), Farmhouse Cookery (2005), and Traditional Foods of Britain (1999), which she co-authored with Catherine Brown.
Chamberlain, Lesley (1989), The Food and Cooking of Eastern Europe, London: Penguin.
