Recipe for Strudel (pareve, uses bread machine)

Here's how I make strudel dough in the bread machine. One batch makes one HUGE strudel or two normal (10-15 servings) strudels. This is the same dough I use to make crescent rolls for shabbat breakfast. It also makes a nice apfelkuchen or pflamenkuchen base.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. water or soymilk


• 2 eggs


• 3 c. all purpose flour


• 1 t. salt


• 3/4 c. (yes, that's 1.5 sticks!!!) margarine


• 1/3 c. sugar


• 1.5 t. yeast (or half a coffee scoop of yeast)

Instructions:
For Strudel

• Roll dough into rectangle
  


• Brush with melted margarine


• Fill with [whatever you like


• Let rise again


• Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees F


• Cover with simple confection-sugar-and-water icing when cool.
  

Here is the one half of the recipe of dough, rolled out to a 2' x 1' rectangle, with the melted margarine ready to be brushed onto the dough's surface:

Chocolate Strudel:

The plastic container at the left has cocoa and sugar mixed in a 1:1 ratio. This is sprinkled on the magarine-coated dough surface:

Pareve chocolate chips (I like the ones at Trader Joe's) on top of the cocoa:

Rolling the strudel into a loaf
Place the rolled up loaf, seam-side in a greased pan.
The excess/spilt cocoa can be put on top of the loaf. I like to do this, especially when making a bunch of different types of strudels, because it helps identify the contents. Also, I hate to waste anything - most particularly chocolate! Make a simple icing by putting a cup (or less) of confection sugar in a bowl, add hot water by the tablespoon, mix well until it behaves like a spreadable icing. Drizzle it on the cooled competed loaf.

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Almond Strudel:

One of the favorite fillings is marzipan. I buy mine from Bierman (OU pareve) at Amazon in 5lb. blocks. One 5lb block makes 6-8 strudels, generously filled. I have found this to be a delicious brand of consistent quality. I've tried buying more than 5 lb. at once, but it tends to dry out after a couple of months, even when kept in an air-tight container. Less than that isn't cost-effective, when the cost of shipping is considered.

To fill the strudel, roll out the strudel dough, coat with margarine (as above), and roll out the marzipan with the rolling pin to cover the margarine-coated dough's surface:

Don't worry that the marzipan fills the dough's surface completely. Patch it together as best you can.

Sprinkle the top of the uncooked marzipan strudel with slivered almonds. They'll brown up in the oven.

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To make crescent breakfast rolls with this same dough, roll the dough in a circle and coat with melted margarine:

On top of the margarine-covered dough, sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon. Sometimes I add raisins, dried cranberries, and/or chopped walnuts. One recipe yields 16 crescents.Cut the circle into eight wedges. Roll each wedge, starting from the arc to the point (middle of the circle) and place on a greased pan, leaving room to rise. In the upper right hand side of the below picture, you can see two HUGE strudels. They had fruit filling. I used to make two HUGE fruit-filled strudels every week (and would cover them in drizzled icing, as described above.) Last year, however, I started making four of the strudels that fit in the 9x3 pans, as above each week, instead. The idea was to reduce waste and stock the freezer with one or two strudels per week, for "dessert emergencies" and for giving away. This has worked very well. The full recipe strudels pictured below would work for very large (20+) crowds, but are impractical for smaller groups.

If you look carefully, you'll see tiny pieces of paper labeling the types of strudel fillings on the inside of the strudel's curve. I used to make (at least) two different types of filling each week. Once baked, you couldn't tell which was which. To identify them, I'd put a piece of paper with the filling's name on the greased pan, and bake it along with the strudel. Then, when it was time to serve the two strudels, I'd put each on a platter with its label discreetly tucked near it. This way, my husband could offer the guests their choice, and know which filling was which, before cutting into them.

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ApfelKuchen and PflamenKuchen: (Apple and Plum cakes)

One recipe of dough above makes 6 of these little cakes, or three in 9-inch round pie pans:

Grease the pan. Press the dough into the pan. Brush with melted margarine. Slice apples or plums as thin as possible. Lay the fruit slices on top of the margarine-coated dough. Paint the tops of the fruit with a very thin layer of melted margarine. Sprinkle cinnamon (and, optionally, either brown or white sugar - I omit this) on top of the fruit slices. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

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