Baking Madness may strike at any time. Back in March, I had a powerful urge to make a strudel. On of the motivators was that we have in our dining room a round table capable of seating six diners comfortably. This is just what strudel stretching calls for. You need to be able to walk the perimeter in order to evenly hand stretch the dough.
The ingredients for strudel dough are few and simple: bread flour, warm water, vegetable oil, eggs, salt and possibly a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice.
The ingredients are mixed, then the resulting mass is vigorously kneaded; either by hand or machine. Ten minutes of heavy handed dough slapping is considered normal and not excessive. But a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, or a heavy duty food processor makes short work of it.
After kneading, the dough rests under cover for 20 minutes to an hour.
Meanwhile, the table is prepared by first placing protective plastic sheets down and thumbtacking them into place. Then a patterned tablecloth or bed sheet is placed over the plastic. The pattern is useful to determine how this you've stretched the now nearly transparent dough.
While the dough rests, the filling is readied, cinnamon sugar is mixed, and toasted bread crumbs prepared.
The rest of this semi tutorial will be in slide show format. If you click the slide show window, you will be taken to a web album of the photos.
(This post was backdated to synch it with the actual event occurence. It was then updated on June 9, 2009. In other words, a reprise.)
7 comments:
I am amazed at your energy level, or rather your stamina! I have little patience and have a hard time waiting for the 2nd rise of dough!
Next thing you will be telling us is that you make your own paté feuilletée ! If you do, I will gladly purchase couple of hanks from your establishment!
I'm sure it would be cheaper than buying one of those great machines! I often dream of having one of those.
Constantino, thanks, but I can't even spell Patty Fuyutay.
The strudel project was a one-off deal, cuando la Luna y La Tierra se estuvieran sincronizadas.
Madness, indeed!
Now I'm making Danish Pastry Dough, in my inimitably sloppy manner.
On the other hand, waiting for a second rise of bread dough requires little attention. Just don't plan to leave the house for a few hours.
Did you note the blog to which I was pointed this morning by Rachel Laudan? It's called "Joe Pastry", nd I think Joe really has a good head on his shoulders when it comes to baking.
http://www.joepastry.com/
(Mexico Bob Mrotek has already been there. That guy knows so much stuff!)
Saludos,
DC
Yes, that site has a lot of info, I often wished that I had worked in a bakery for awhile to get all the tricks and feel of the textures and consistencies of the dough. My problem is that it is colder in my kitchen than normal, so a nice proofing box would be nice, but I am sure my wife wouldn't approve.
As I think of it that is the site I got my Ciabbata info from!
First of all, what happened to Alfonso, your ex-avatar? Who is the new guy?
We can discuss proofing and other baking things F2F or by email.
Saludos,
DC
This is just fantastic, from the covered table to the finished strudel. I found you through Mexico Bob & see I am going to have to some fun looking around your site.
I plan to forward this to my daughter who is a pastry/baking chef, I think she'll really like it also.
Suzanne - another Mexico blogger
http://www.livinginsanmiguel.wordpress.com
Gracias por tú amable comentario, Suzanne.
Really, my strudel post is a reprise. I went in to make a few repairs to the post (orginally from about 2 years ago), and the date moved up.
Blogger is a Time Machine!
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
PS: You know that Felipes wife, La Guapa Señora", is a baker?
That's Felipe of " The Zapata Tales", http://www.tzuru4.blogspot.com/
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