Basic Strudel Dough

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups twice-sifted flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon melted butter, slightly cooled
• 1/3 cup lukewarm water

Directions

Sift flour and salt into large mixing bowl. Into middle drop egg, butter and gradually water. With your hands knead dough firmly against sides of bowl, working all ingredients together as you knead, for about 20 minutes or until dough is elastic and begins to blister.

Dough should be soft but rather dry. If it is too dry, knead in a little more water. When dough seems to be soft enough, silky and elastic, throw the whole lump enthusiastically against a floured board or table cloth a few times (this helps the blistering and thus the ultimate stretchability of the dough). As you throw, for 5-10 minutes, you can work some of the excess flour from the board into the dough, to get a smooth ball that no longer sticks to your hands.

Set ball of dough on floured board, cover with a bowl that is at room temperature, and let the dough rest about half hour. Spread a tablecloth (preferably one printed with colored design) over a table at least 3 feet square; dust the cloth generously with flour. Roll out the dough, as thin as possible, on the floured cloth. Brush dough with about 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Now comes the fun part! Drape the dough over your slightly floured fists, and sort of toss and bounce it gently in all directions until it stretches and begins to hang down over your forearms. Set the dough gently down on the floured cloth again, and with slightly floured fingertips, pull the dough out gently in all directions until it is transparently thin. (The dough must be so thin that you can see perfectly the printed design of the tablecloth beneath it.)

While you are pulling out the dough this way, it is a temptation to lean one hand on the center of the dough to give yourself a firm anchorage. But resist, or the dough will stick to your hand and will leave a tragic hole in the middle of your lovely strudel. Instead of leaning, just keep walking around the table so that you can get at the dough from all sides to do your pulling out evenly.

If, despite all your care, your pulling out does produce a hole or two, patch with a thin piece from the edges of the dough. When it is all nicely pulled out, trim away the thick edges. Fill the strudel and bake as the associated strudel recipe directs.

Source: Clarion Ledger – Jackson, Ms