2016-03-22

Hello my dear readers! It seems like only recently we were preparing for the New Year, but so much time has already flown by! Maybe it's just me who has this feeling? My days are spinning in a frantic cycle - stop, time, I need to come to my senses a little! At such moments, I desperately want to do something to channel my violent emotions into a “peaceful” direction. Today I decided to make strudel dough differently than always. But I will undoubtedly tell you about all the methods and recipes I have tried.

The dough recipe for making real strudel has a reputation for being “difficult.” What is the main “catch”? Why are so many people “afraid” of him? The problem is to achieve the thinnest possible layer without any breaks, holes or thickening at the edges. Previously, I, too, cowardly bought ready-made puff pastry and baked a roll “a la strudel”. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. Moreover, the end result was delicious.

But at some point in time, I myself wanted to “feel” how the dough for making strudel is made for real. That is, I was very interested in the process itself. I wanted to confirm or refute the main myths - the need for transparency, the absence of breaks and thickening in a stretched layer. Armed with a large sheet, a long rolling pin and the determination of my stubborn Scythian ancestors, I took a deep breath and began to knead, roll and stretch.

Once upon a time I made stretch dough. This significant event took place in the late seventies at the dacha of my mother’s Aunt Alix (an excellent skill, by the way, in preparing Lenten poppy seed yeast roll). True, in my aunt’s notebook there was a recipe for strudel. How is strudel different from strudel? The strudel has the aroma of autumn Vienna, and the strudel has the aroma of the chilly winds of the Neva. They say that making strudel strudel dough is like learning to ride a bicycle. Once you learn, you always know how to do it. I never learned to ride a bike. This is probably why my hands completely forgot how to prepare the difficult “strudel” dough. Oh, I definitely hear men’s laughter - the logic of women, my dear men, is incomprehensible to your pragmatic brains.

I started with theory. It turned out that there are several types of stretch test. In particular, “eastern”, known as “filo” and “western”, which, in fact, is the dough for strudels. I decided to start with the first one. I knew the taste of baked goods well. At home, in Sochi, my Greek-Georgian relatives baked excellent pies from such dough. True, most often not with sweet, but with salty filling. We will now consider this option in great detail.

Strudel dough: oriental recipe with photo

Ingredients

• 500 g strong flour.
• 300 ml very warm (50°C) water.
• 80-90 ml of any odorless vegetable oil.
• A pinch of salt.
• Baking soda twice on the tip of a knife.

My comments

• Advantages - the dough has high taste, delicate layering. It can be used during Lent (after all, it is completely lean), and is suitable for vegetarians. Great for fillings of any consistency - juicy (with apples, pears, cherries), dry (with nuts, poppy seeds). Great with feta cheese, cottage cheese, meat, cabbage.
• Disadvantages: quite labor-intensive, requires certain skills.
• Don't be upset if the thin sheet breaks somewhere - it won't be visible in the finished product.
• The thickened edges can be trimmed, but it is better to stretch them carefully when the dough is already resting on the fabric.
• From this quantity of products you will get 6 strudels approximately 40 cm long.
• To more clearly imagine the cooking technology, I suggest you watch an excellent video - a recipe for strudel from Tatyana Litvinova.

Recipe for European stretch dough for strudel

Ingredients

• 500 g strong flour.
• 4 yolks.
• 30-40 g pork lard.
• 250 ml water.
• a pinch of salt.
• 5-6 drops of vinegar.

Preparation

1. Sift the flour, make a “slide” in it, put lard, salt, yolks, vinegar there.
2. Slowly add water, knead a soft, non-sticky, fairly elastic dough. Everyone's flour will be different (you will probably have flour with slightly different parameters), so you should focus on the consistency of the dough. Under no circumstances should it be rigid—it won’t be possible to stretch it!
3. We beat the ball on the table 40-50 times, spread vegetable oil or melted fat on top, cover with a warm bowl and let it “rest” for 40-60 minutes.
4. The further cooking technology is the same as in the recipe for the “eastern” version.

My comments

• Advantages: excellent taste, delicate layering. Pairs perfectly with any salty and sweet, dry and juicy fillings.
• Disadvantages: the stretching process is labor-intensive and cannot be used for making lean baked goods.
• Water can be replaced with kefir, sour cream (15%), but I like the authentic version with water most of all.

Lazy recipe

• 150 g flour
• 60 ml warm water.
• 40 ml vegetable oil.
• Salt on the tip of the knife.

How to do

My comments

• Advantages: easy to roll, no need to stretch.
• Disadvantages: very fragile and therefore extremely difficult to cut. It should only be cut while warm. The layering is somewhat rough.
• This option will be most successfully combined with apples, pears, cherries and other juicy fillings.

Try all the suggested recipes, and then choose the one that works best for you. Make it your “signature” one.

Something has recently drawn me to experiment with various types of unleavened dough. A very successful experience was preparing “yufka” dough for zhengyal hats and gozleme flatbreads. I really want to cook juicy Adjarian achma, but I just don’t have enough time. But it’s okay, they’ll get their hands on this delicious pastry.

If you, like me, have back pain from working at the computer for long periods of time, you should think about purchasing posture corrector.

I would be very grateful for comments and questions. How do you make stretch dough, my dear readers? If you have the opportunity and desire, send your recipes and photos. I will certainly publish them in the appropriate section under your authorship.

If you liked our meeting today and my “calculations,” then please share the article on social networks. Subscribe to the blog newsletter - I promise a lot of interesting things ahead! Bye everyone!
Always yours Irina.
Music that always sounds inside me. Not a day goes by that I don't listen to it and dance to it. How many love stories can be told and lived to these divine sounds.
Goran Bregovich - Underground Tango

24201 3

21.01.15

Baklava, strudel, burek, vertuta, placinda, banitsa - all these culinary products are prepared from stretch dough. A distinctive feature of the stretch dough is its thickness. The dough is rolled out (stretched) to the minimum possible thickness of 1 mm. The dough is folded on top of each other, as a result the finished products are obtained with a layered structure, fragile, crispy, but unlike, for example, products made from similar puff pastry, they have less calories. To prepare stretch dough, much less oil is required. Greek phyllo dough is a type of stretch pastry. Dumpling dough is also a type of it, but 2 times thicker. And pizza dough can also be called conditionally stretch dough. Extract dough can be simple (unleavened) and yeast.

So, stretch dough. To learn how to roll out (stretch) dough, you need to have dexterity and skill. Usually the first experiment ends with the dough tearing, but this is not scary, because... Where the dough has torn, you can put another thin layer of dough on top. Subsequently, with skill, the dough turns out thin and baking with it is a real pleasure.

Unleavened stretch dough

Take 3 full glasses of flour, 1 glass of warm water, a spoonful of salt and 6 tablespoons of vegetable oil, as well as melted butter to lubricate the dough so that it does not dry out. You will also need a large work surface, tracing paper and a pastry brush.
Mix sifted flour with salt. Pour warm water into a bowl, add flour and knead the dough for 10 minutes. Roll the dough into a ball and beat it several times to release any air bubbles. Wrap the dough in a bag and put it in a warm place (you can immerse the sealed bag in warm water for 15 minutes). Remove the dough from the bag. Divide it into 8 parts, cover. Roll out each part on a greased work surface, then, rotating the dough, stretch it from the center to the edges, without stopping rotating. Brush the dough generously with melted butter. If products made from stretch dough are not baked immediately, the finished dough should be laid out on greased parchment and rolled into a tube, with the edges folded. In this form, wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the refrigerator or freezer. If baking is meant to be done right away, the dough is generously greased with butter and stacked on top of each other.

Yeast stretch dough is prepared in the same way as unleavened dough, having first dissolved a spoonful of sugar and a spoonful of yeast in water.

And now about the main thing! Many different desserts, pies, and hot snacks are baked from stretched dough. In the cooking of different nations of the world you can find recipes for dishes with stretch dough. In Moldova they bake vertuta, in Germany strudel, in Armenia achma, in Turkey burek, etc.

To prepare Moldavian placinda, the dough is first rolled out, then stretched, greased with oil and folded into several layers. Let the dough rest, roll it out again and stretch it out. Place the filling, bring the edges together tightly in the center, and roll out the flatbread one last time. Fry the placintas in a frying pan without oil, i.e. practically baked. The finished placintas are stacked, each one is brushed with melted butter.

For Uzbek samsa, the dough is rolled out lightly, then stretched out with your hands on the table or rolled out on a towel. Grease the entire dough with oil and roll it into a roll. Let the dough rest, cut the dough into discs, let it rest again, then roll out the pieces of dough, bending the edge to the middle. Place the filling in the center of the rolled out flatbread, connect the ends, giving the product a triangular shape. The samsa is turned over and placed with the tucks facing down. Bake samsa in a hot oven until cooked.

For the Bulgarian banitsa, the dough is divided into several parts, each one is pulled out. Place the filling (cottage cheese mixed with eggs, melted butter and sugar, spread over the surface of the dough. Roll up the dough. All the “tubes” are connected into one and the “snail” is twisted. Place in the mold and put in the oven.

Moldavian vertuta is prepared in exactly the same way as banitsa, but the filling for the vertuta is varied. These are cottage cheese, potatoes, pumpkin, nuts, meat, cheese, etc. The dough is rolled out on a towel in parts. Place the filling on the edge of the dough and roll it into a sausage. Transfer the blanks one by one into the mold, rolling up the “snail” - vertuta. Bake in the oven until golden brown. Hot vertuta is poured with melted butter.

Baklava is made from yeast dough, which is kneaded, divided, rolled out and stretched very thin. Each layer is sprinkled with nuts. The baklava is cut into diamond shapes and baked. Half an hour before readiness, pour oil into the baklava, cutting the diamond shapes to the end. Five minutes before readiness, pour honey syrup over the baklava.

Viennese strudel is made from a single, whole dough. The layer is elongated to 1 mm. The dough is greased with melted butter, sprinkled with breadcrumbs, nuts, apples, cut into slices, and sugar. Roll the strudel into a roll, brush with butter and bake in the oven until done.

Armenian achma is prepared from several layers of stretch dough. The elongated layers are greased with oil, covered with parchment and rolled up. The filling is made from cottage cheese, cheese and eggs. Place a larger layer of dough in the mold so that the edges hang down. Then sheets of dough with a diameter equal to the shape are placed in the mold. Each layer of dough is filled with filling. The overhanging edges of the dough are lifted up over the entire pie. Brush with melted butter and bake in the oven until done. Achma is slightly cooled, cut and served.
Turkish börek with cheese and herbs or meat and cheese (the meat is pre-fried) is prepared in almost the same way as achma. First put the largest layer, then the filling, then smaller layers of dough. The last layer is the dough. Grease it with oil, cover it with the hanging dough, grease it again with oil and bake the berek in the oven until golden brown.

If you have ever tried real homemade strudel, then you know that these sweets cannot be replaced with anything else. It’s just that everything else will be so inferior (especially for store-bought baked goods) that you won’t want to compare. Let's throw the idea of ​​buying a roll for tea out of our heads and start creating. To do this you will need to master stretch dough. The product is not too difficult, but does require some practice.

So many different dishes

Baklava and strudel, burek and vertuta, placinda and banitsa are all culinary products that are related. Ask why? The answer is simple, they require stretch dough. You can buy it in the supermarket, but it's much better to learn how to make it at home. Then you can surprise your guests with fantastic dishes at minimal cost. Get ready for the fact that you won’t succeed the first time, so practice with the dough, and only when it starts to work out, prepare the filling.

Main difficulties

When assessing the ingredients, it appears that the dough will not take more than five minutes to prepare, and is an easy task for absolute beginners. In fact, kneading the stretch dough is not at all difficult, but then you need to roll it out well. To learn how to pull properly and get an even, smooth cake, you need to have skill and experience. Moreover, if in the hands of an experienced cook it stretches by itself, then a beginner will have to tinker.

Usually the first experiment ends with the cake starting to tear. This is not too scary because where the stretch dough has torn, you can put another thin layer on top. As a result, the product will be light, structural and not too greasy.

Filo dough

If you paid attention, it is sold in all major supermarkets. However, it is mixed by machine, and for better results, plasticizers and various additives are used. How to avoid eating them? The answer is simple, you need to read how to make stretch dough and get to work.

There is a basic recipe to start with. You will need to take 250 g of flour, 150 ml of warm water, 33 g of vegetable oil. Additionally, a pinch of salt and soda on the tip of the knife. As you can see, the ingredients are very simple. Are the costs of preparation and the price of the finished product in the store commensurate? Everyone will decide for themselves.

Let's get started

It is very important to prepare elastic and tender strudel dough. This is precisely the secret of success. If it is too tender, vague or, conversely, hard and rough, then you can throw it away and start all over again. Therefore, the proportions must be observed quite carefully.

First of all, you need to sift the flour. Now we heat the water to a warm state (+50 degrees) and dissolve the salt in it. Pour water into the prepared flour. Please note that this is the sequence. Pouring the dry part into the liquid will give you a different result. It’s hard to say whether the dough will be worse, but it’s definitely a little different.

Now pour out the oil and add soda. Knead the dough using any method. If you use a spatula, then by folding it, bring it to the state of a homogeneous, elastic ball. You can also do this by hand. It may be sticky at first, but will gradually become elastic. To do this, it is recommended to beat the dough on the table at least 50 times.

Secret of success

Why doesn't everyone succeed in stretch dough? Everyone can read how to make it in cookbooks, and as a result they buy it ready-made in stores. There is nothing strange about this. It's just that novice bakers are in a hurry to start rolling out the dough. Of course, it tears and does not want to become the thinnest, snow-white sheet. But the whole problem is that he needs to be allowed to rest for at least an hour, and preferably two. During this time, the flour will swell and the mass will become elastic. Therefore, we divide the ball into three parts, pack it in plastic or a container and put it in the refrigerator.

The second point to consider. In the cold, the dough rests much better and becomes more flexible. But in order for these properties to clearly manifest themselves at the moment of stretching, the dough needs to be warmed. Therefore, we put it on the table and wait at least 30 minutes. Now the preparations are complete.

Proven recipe

The stretch dough for strudel is prepared simply. Each of the three pieces must be turned into a flat cake, approximately 25 cm in diameter. This will require a heavy rolling pin and patience. But that’s not all, it’s still quite thick, and we need it to be able to read a book through the layer of dough.

To do this, dip your hands in flour and begin to carefully stretch the cake from the middle to the edges, twisting the dough around its axis. Then we move on and stretch the dough closer to the edges. The process is extremely exciting. When in your hands a thick piece begins to turn into the most delicate, silky cake, through which the words printed on a book sheet can be easily discerned, then you can say that the work is finished. The recipe for stretch dough with photos is ready to take its rightful place in your collection.

What the hostess needs to know

If you want to make future baked goods more tender and fluffy, it is recommended to prepare yeast stretch dough. There is nothing complicated about this; just during the cooking process, a spoonful of sugar and a similar amount of yeast are dissolved in water. If you decide to freeze the dough and use it later, then place the finished sheets on greased parchment and roll them up. In this form it can be stored in the freezer. And if it is baked right now, then the sheets are stacked one on top of the other and generously greased with butter.

Delicious strudels

This dessert conquers the first time. If the experiment with the dough was a success, then we move on to the filling. To do this you need a kilogram of apples, grated. It is better to squeeze out the juice. Add 150 g of bread crumbs to this mixture. In addition, you will need 100 g of walnuts, sugar and cinnamon. The preparation itself is not difficult. Grease the dough sheets with oil, place the filling on the edge, and now carefully wrap the roll with a towel.

Moldavian pie

And as a main course, you can prepare fantastic placintas from stretch dough. In this case, feel free to use the basic recipe. The only difference will be the filling. Usually these are hearty and tasty pies with cabbage or feta cheese, cottage cheese and herbs, potatoes or even meat. The pie is made in the form of a round cake. To do this, place the filling in the middle, and then pinch the edges end-to-end or overlapping.

There is another way of cooking. In this case, use one layer of dough to line the mold. The rest are filled with filling and rolled into rolls. Now they are carefully placed inside the mold and covered with the overhanging edges of the dough on top. All that remains is to grease with oil and place in the oven. This is an intermediate recipe, that is, the result is either placinda or vertuta.

Variations

If you want your baked goods to be more rich, then try this recipe. Extracted dough for vertuta is prepared with the addition of eggs, and it also contains more oil. For example, take one and a half tbsp. flour and 1 egg, half a tbsp. melted butter, a teaspoon of vegetable oil and 2/ tbsp. water. All ingredients need to be kneaded into an elastic dough. Leave it to rest for an hour, after which you can start cooking. As you remember, it should spend half of the allotted time in the refrigerator, and the second on the table.

Preparation of vertuta

The filling can be anything, most often it is cottage cheese with herbs. First of all, you need to roll out the dough very thin. This is the main secret of success. After this, spread the filling thinly over the entire surface. Carefully roll up and arrange in a spiral. Transfer the resulting product to a baking sheet and brush with egg. Bake it using your oven as a guide until browned. When taking out the roll, be sure to grease it with butter and leave to cool slightly.

Bulgarian banitsa

This is a recipe that will appeal to all lovers of savory baked goods. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, it will become a frequent guest on your table. To implement the idea, take 600 g of flour, one egg, three teaspoons of vinegar. All products need to be ground and added 250 ml of water. The dough is kneaded and rested as described above. Divide it into 4 parts. For the filling, grind 350 g of cheese with your hands. You can replace it with any type of cheese, just not too spicy.

Now comes the hard part. Take out one piece of dough and stretch until transparent. Then spread a quarter of the filling and pour over the melted butter. Roll up the roll and place it in a baking dish. Repeat the procedure with the remaining parts. Cook until golden brown.

Instead of a conclusion

Stretch dough seems very difficult, but it's really just a matter of practice. After preparing it several times, you will master the technique, and then there is room for imagination. There is only one rule here: you need to stretch it very thinly. Rolls or strudels from this dough can be prepared with any filling. Most often they choose fruits or berries, cheese or cottage cheese. The result will please and pleasantly surprise. Unlike puff pastry, such baked goods are less fatty, which is very popular with the fair sex.

More than once I have seen how deftly Arab or Turkish cooks handle stretch dough. Their craftsmanship is truly admirable. The thought involuntarily arises: “I’ll never learn like that again!” And indeed, I have not yet developed a “warm relationship” with this test...

But then I came across Alena Spirina’s material in livejournal.com and I thought that it’s true that “it’s not the gods who burn the pots.” And I had a desire to try making strudel from this dough. When? Do not know yet. But I hope that Alena’s material will be of interest to many housewives who want to pamper their loved ones and friends with delicious delicacies. So that's what it's all about.

Extract dough evokes a kind of sacred awe and fear in many quite skilled housewives. Why is not clear. The products are elementary, the labor and time costs are not at all great. Knead and knead, leave to rest, stretch and wrap - that’s the whole process. There are, of course, some subtleties, knowing which you can easily bake strudel according to any recipe.

Main Ingredients

It is believed that the success of the stretch dough directly depends on the choice of flour. In order for the dough to stretch thinly and not tear, a special protein must be present in the flour, which is responsible for the ability of the dough to stretch. In bleached flour, which is sold in our stores, this protein is practically absent - it is destroyed during the bleaching process. So use unbleached flour whenever possible (haha three times).

Károly Gundel explains that not all flour can be used to knead such dough, but only flour that is “finely ground, but not freshly ground,” with a high gluten content: “13% gluten and 65% starch.” And the flour must be very dry. I honestly used both bread flour with a protein content of 12% and regular flour (10%) and honestly, I didn’t feel much of a difference.

In its pure form it makes up from 40 to 70% of the weight of flour and is present in almost all recipes for stretch dough (the only exception I came across is the Gundel recipe for retesh, where sour cream is used as a liquid). Very often, recipes indicate the temperature of the water: cold, room temperature or warm. The colder the water, the more time it will take for the dough to “rest,” but the thinner it will be able to stretch.

Fat is present in products in two forms: as a dough ingredient and for lubricating the dough, as a “separator” of layers. A small addition of fat softens the dough, making it more manageable and elastic. Almost always, vegetable oil is added to the dough, sometimes in combination with melted butter. In Hungarian retesh recipes, vegetable oil is often replaced with lard. The main amount of oil is used to lubricate the dough. Most often this is melted butter. However, we must not forget that butter contains about 20% water, which during baking penetrates into the dough, moistening it and making it less crispy and tender. In addition, milk particles leave brown spots on the surface of the dough. Therefore, it is much better to use clarified butter (the water has already evaporated from it) or vegetable oil (optimal for lean strudels) or lard (better when using unsweetened fillings). Egg is usually found in retesh recipes. Sometimes this is a whole egg, that is, the “water” of the white and the “fat” of the yolk, often just the yolk. The dough with egg stretches less well, but it is denser and does not allow the juicy filling to pass through.

Acid, whether wine or apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, white wine, or even sour cream, is added to the dough to soften the gluten and increase the elasticity of the dough. In addition, the dough with acid becomes more crumbly.

Technology

Thickening the filling. Any filling used for strudel can be thickened with bread crumbs fried in butter (or vegetable) oil. For sweet strudels, add sugar and, if desired, chopped nuts to the crumbs. Let's call this mixture “sprinkles.” Just don't completely replace the crumbs with nuts! Nuts, unlike crumbs, do not absorb moisture, so in the case of strudel, crumbs are added not out of poverty, but solely out of necessity.

However, don’t get carried away: too much sprinkles (or any other thickener) coarsens the filling, making it gummy rather than juicy. Therefore, it is better to reduce the juiciness of the filling itself by boiling the berries or squeezing the fruits and vegetables. When using fruits such as apples, pears, plums, peaches, etc. Just cut the fruit into slices in advance, pour in lemon juice, sprinkle with sugar and leave in a colander, pressing with a plate, for 30 minutes - the juice will drain and will not wet the dough. More juicy fruits - sweet cherries, cherries, as well as berries, due to their large juice secretion, require more careful preparation: either strong thickeners (starch) are added to them, or mixed with dried bread cubes 7-8 mm in size. The bread has a neutral taste, good binding properties and is invisible in the product as a whole.

Another successful way to use juicy berries is to mix them with cottage cheese or pastry cream.

Kneading dough

1. Sift flour and salt onto a work surface and collect in a mound.

2. Make a well in the center and pour in vegetable oil (or other fat).

3. Gradually, in 3-4 additions, add the liquid components of the dough. If it is not just water, it makes sense to mix all the ingredients (water, egg, vinegar, sour cream, etc.) with a fork until smooth.

4. Working with your fingertips, a fork, or a bench scraper, mix the flour into the liquid until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough, occasionally hitting it on the counter, until it no longer sticks to the counter and becomes smooth, elastic and silky.

5. Roll the dough into a ball, brush with vegetable oil, cover with an inverted bowl or wrap in film and leave to rest. “Rest” of the dough Never neglect this simple procedure! Only in a well-rested dough is the liquid distributed evenly, the flour swells, the dough becomes gratefully elastic, and it can be stretched thinly without tearing. The well-kneaded dough is greased with oil and either covered with an inverted bowl or wrapped in film. Sometimes it is advised to cover with a warm bowl - this shortens the resting time, but this should not be done in hot weather. The resting time depends on the temperature of the liquid used to knead the dough - the colder it is, the longer. In general, it is best to follow the recipe directions. In any case, it will be better if the dough rests longer, but this time should not be shortened. The ball of rested dough will spread slightly and become even silkier.

Rolling and stretching

1. Stretch the dough as quickly as possible so that it does not have time to dry out and become brittle.

2. The easiest way to stretch the dough is on a round table with a diameter of 90-120 cm, so that you can freely walk around it and stretch the dough. Don't try to move the dough - move it yourself!

3. Cover the table with an old sheet or tablecloth, preferably with a jacquard pattern, so that you can easily assess the transparency of the dough.

4. Lightly dust the cloth with flour, place the dough in the center of the table and roll it out with a rolling pin to a diameter of 25 cm.

5. Remove the rings from your fingers, place your hands palms down, bend your fingers slightly. Now slowly pull the dough away from the center, moving it around in a circle on your knuckles.

6. When the center of the dough is well stretched, place the dough on the cloth and gently pull the dough from the center to the edges while spreading your hands. Stretch the dough section by section, moving around the table. Gradually, the entire dough will become so thin that the design on the fabric will be visible, and the edges will hang over the table. Trim the thick edges with scissors (roll the scraps into a ball, wrap them in film and put them in the refrigerator - they will come in handy). Try not to tear the dough, but if holes do appear, do not rush to patch them - new holes will immediately form in place of the patch! First, stretch the entire dough, trim the edges, and then patch all the holes. The stretched dough should not be sticky or dry. If the day is too wet, leave the dough to dry for a couple of minutes. If the air in the room is too dry, brush the surface of the dough with a thin layer of melted or vegetable oil.

Distributing the filling and forming the strudel The filling can be distributed on the dough in three main ways:

Use a wide and thick roller along one side, 6-8 cm away from the edge of the dough. Then the filling will be concentrated in one place, and around it the dough will form several layers, separated by oil;

The filling fills 1/3 to 2/3 of the surface of the dough. In this case, the remaining 2/3 or 1/3 of the dough will form layers;

The filling is distributed evenly in a thin layer over the entire surface of the dough, except for stripes 5-7 cm wide around the perimeter of the dough. With this distribution, the filling ends up between all layers of dough.

Whatever method of distributing the filling you choose, the sequence of actions is the same:

1. Prepare a baking tray or baking dish: grease or cover with baking paper.

2. Sprinkle melted butter over the entire surface of the dough.

3. Sprinkle the area reserved for the filling with half of the prepared topping.

4. Place the filling and sprinkle with the remaining sprinkles.

5. Helping yourself with a cloth, cover the filling with the bottom strip of dough. It's okay if the dough doesn't cover all the filling at this stage. Shake off excess flour (if any) from the dough that encloses the filling and brush it with butter.

6. Place the dough on the sides over the filling.

7. Lifting the fabric with both hands, roll one more turn of the roll. Shake off the flour again and brush with oil. Continue rolling the strudel, being careful not to make it too tight, until you have rolled it all the way.

8. Place the strudel, seam side down, onto the prepared baking sheet - like a “log” or a horseshoe, or into a mold, folding it in a zigzag or snail shape. If the filling is wet, make several slits in the dough to allow steam to escape.

9. Brush the strudel with two-thirds of the remaining butter. Place in a preheated oven. If necessary, at this stage you can cover the baking sheet with the strudel with film and put it in the refrigerator overnight (if the recipe does not warn against such a step).

Baking

Temperature conditions and baking duration vary from recipe to recipe. Depending on the dough and filling and the method of its distribution, you can bake the strudel for 60 minutes at a temperature of 180 C, or for 25-30 minutes at 205 C. Remember that strudels with cottage cheese or custard cannot be baked at temperatures above 190 C If the edges of the strudel brown faster than the central part, cover them with foil. You can place the baking sheet with the strudel in the upper part of the oven on a baking stone or on another baking sheet so that the bottom of the strudel is well baked. While baking, brush the strudel with the remaining butter 1-2 times. Strudel baked in a mold can be topped with milk or cream. About halfway through baking, when a golden brown crust has already appeared on the surface of the strudel, pour about 100 ml of hot milk or cream over the strudel, return to the oven and finish baking.

Serving

Carefully transfer the strudel to a wire rack and cool. Using a sharp knife or bread knife, cut diagonally into pieces 2.5 - 5.0 cm wide. The most delicious strudel is warm.

The cooled strudel can be reheated in the oven at 150 C: 5 minutes if the strudel is at room temperature; 10-15 minutes if the strudel was stored in the refrigerator.

Stretch dough for strudel (proportions according to K. Schumacher):

100 g cold water

15 g (1 tbsp) vegetable oil

Approx. 100 g melted butter or ghee

120 g fine bread crumbs

Rest time: up to 12 hours in the refrigerator.

Apple filling

1 tsp lemon zest

50 g sugar

10 g starch

850 g peeled and chopped apples

50 g raisins

50 g chopped walnuts

Cinnamon to taste

1. Mix 1/3 sugar with lemon zest and mash with a spatula or wooden spoon.

2. Mix the remaining granulated sugar with starch.

3. Mix apples, raisins, nuts and cinnamon with lemon sugar. Add sugar mixed with starch and mix.

4. Stretch the dough, sprinkle with butter. Cover 2/3 or 1/3 of the stretched dough with sprinkles, add the filling, and form the strudel. Grease the surface with oil.

5. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 C for approximately 35 minutes. During baking, grease with oil twice, and once again - already baked.

Pull dough is less popular, for example, than, but you can make many amazing dishes from it. It has another name - “Philo”. Its recipes are almost the same, the only difference is in some components and their quantity, as well as the presence of eggs in the list of products. But the main “trick” of all cooking schemes is stretching the dough mass into a thin layer. This process is quite labor-intensive, so it scares off many housewives. But the result will be very tasty dishes, for which you can choose the filling at your discretion. Let's look at step by step and with photos how to prepare stretch dough at home for various dishes.

Filo with egg for strudel

The final quantity obtained is calculated for the preparation of two. The cooking option is similar without eggs.

Grocery list:

• Wheat flour – 200 g;
• A pinch of salt;
• One egg yolk;
• Warm water – 100 ml;
• Vegetable oil (refined) – 5 tablespoons.

Cooking instructions:

1. Add butter and yolk to a container with warm water. Add salt and stir with a whisk;
2. Add flour in parts and knead until elastic, about 10 minutes;
3. Wrap the dough ball in cling film or a plastic bag and leave to “rest” for half an hour at room temperature. This stage is required so that all the ingredients “adhere” well to each other. Then the pulling will be much easier to do;
4. We divide the ball into two equal components and first roll out one of them on the table to a thickness of approximately 3 mm;
5. Then we stretch it ourselves with our hands, doing it very carefully and trying not to tear it. The main thing is not to rush;
6. The strudel blank should have a thickness of no more than a couple of millimeters. After this, immediately add the filling and roll it up. Similar manipulations are performed with the second test part.

Many housewives stretch the dough on a large kitchen towel. This is very convenient, and the product itself does not stick to the surface.

Homemade filo for vertutut

Very easy to prepare at home. The main thing is to completely follow the cooking instructions. In general, the recipe for stretch dough for vertuta is practically no different from the previous one, which is used to create strudels, but it does not contain eggs.

The amount of ingredients is designed for 8 servings. You need:

• 2 cups of flour;
• 3 large spoons of vegetable oil;
• Half a teaspoon of salt;
• 2/3 glass of water;
• 2 tablespoons vinegar.

Let's prepare it step by step:

1. Pour the flour mound onto your work surface and make a small indentation in it. Pour in some oil, water and vinegar;
2. Knead an elastic dough that does not stick to your hands;
3. Divide the workpiece into equal parts and roll each into a sausage, then roll them into the thinnest round plates;
4. Leave the layers to rest, covering them with a cloth for 15 minutes. After this time, the products must be pulled out evenly in all directions so that they turn out thin, like a sheet of paper. Thick edges can be cut off;
5. Choose the filling to your taste and form.

Yeast phyllo for placintas

- another Moldavian dish, which is prepared by analogy with vertuta. Now we will tell you how to make stretch dough for them using yeast.

You will need:

• Water – 300 ml;
• Flour – 3.5 cups (full);
• Fresh yeast – 10 g;
• Salt - a teaspoon;
• Vegetable oil – 5 tablespoons.

The ingredients are for 20 products. The cooking process is as follows:

1. Dissolve the yeast in 50 ml of warm water;
2. Pour the flour mixture with salt into a separate bowl, then gradually add the remaining water. Don't forget to constantly stir the mixture with a spoon. Next, add the yeast solution and vegetable oil;
3. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and form the mixture into a not very stiff dough. Place the workpiece in a clean bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rest for an hour;
4. After this time, divide the dough mass into 20 equal small pieces, approximately 80 g each, then roll them into layers of small thickness;
5. At the final stage, each blank for the placinda must be evenly stretched to a thin transparent state, as described in previous recipes. The yeast dough turns out to be very tender, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Even if the workpiece breaks somewhere, don’t worry;
6. All that remains is to choose your favorite filling and form the placintas themselves.

Video: Recipe for stretched dough from Grandma Emma