William Penn Life, 2011 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2011-03-01 / 3. szám
The Hungarian Kitchen with Főszakács Béla y Strudel (Rétesek) FARADJON BE A MAGYAR KONYFLABA! Recipes for another William Penn cookbook are off to a great start. By this time next year, we should be selling the new book with more recipes. This project is for all the members, by the members, to benefit the scholarship foundation. As a quick reminder, the recipes do not have to be Hungarian. Send us what you and your family enjoy for a meal, snack or appetizer when you entertain or something you would like to share. Another reminder that 2011 is a convention year and elections for delegates are in May. William Penn Life will publish dates of every delegate branch election in the April issue. Attendance at your branch meeting is crucial and your vote is important! Tickets for the 125th Anniversary Gala will be available shortly. Details will be forthcoming in William Penn Life. That is all the housekeeping for the month. Monthly Trivia: Who created the world's first strudel recipe and where has it been kept all these years? The answer, of course, is warmly awaiting fresh from the oven at the end of the recipes section. STRUDEL is a layered pastry most often with a sweet filling, but it can be savory as well. The Turks brought strudel to Hungary when they invaded, and it became part of the Magyar cuisine after they left. This is another example of how the Hungarian food came about. The sweet-filled strudels are served with whipped cream, adding another dimension to its tasty profile. Most strudels in the world are made from filo or puff pastry. Baklava is a distant cousin of traditional strudel. Magyar strudel-or rétesek—is made using a recipe providing thin dough. It should also be known that most eastern European strudels are sweetened by the filling it holds. Adding sugar to the dough will decrease its ability to expand and become a thin, unworkable dough. The dough is very elastic and contains high-gluten flour, salt, eggs, water, butter and no sugar. Most European homemakers use a combination of high-gluten or bread flour with a softer or cake flour. This mixture, along with an instantized ingredient such as super-fine flour, makes for a dough that can be stretched and cover the top of a normal size kitchen table. Wondra flour, produced by Gold Medal, is an example of super-fine flour. Mixed with the other flours in the right proportion, Wondra creates dough that is moist and stretchable. If the dough is too thick, you will not have strudel; your product would be called a turnover, hot pocket, calzone, or oversize filled kifli. What sets strudel apart from other baked pastries is the thinness of its crust. The head cook to the emperor of Austria in the 17th century once stated, "the dough should be so thin, you can read a love letter through it!" To keep the dough pliable throughout the stretching process, brush melted, warm—not hot—butter sparingly on the dough. The dough is then left to rest 10 minutes before stretching. This process is repeated until the dough is super thin. For best results have someone help you stretch the dough in stages until you reach the proper thinness. The first thing to do is put down a lintfree cloth large enough to cover the tabletop. I find that a twin bed sheet is perfect for this project. Sprinkle some flour on the sheet and rub it into the surface until it disappears. This will keep the dough from sticking. If you are working alone, start out by rolling the room temperature dough with a rolling pin into a circle. Roll the dough until it is 1/8-inch thick. Brush on the butter, wait 10 minutes, then stretch the dough from opposite sides. Think of a clock face. If you stretch at 6:00, you would also stretch at 12:00. Stretch at three, then at nine. Continue this process until the dough is so thin you can read a recipe through it. Spread the filling of your choice on 1/3 of the dough, beginning at the edge closer to the edge of the table. To roll your strudel, lift the sheet up so the edge of the dough rolls over and just touches the filling. Brush with butter then lift the sheet and roll again. Brush with butter again. Continue this process until the dough is completely rolled up like a jellyroll. Transfer the strudel to a sheet pan that has been liberally brushed with butter. Brush butter all over your strudel as the final preparation before baking. The final process is to bake the strudel in a preheated 375-degree oven until it's golden brown and crisp. Let your strudel cool before slicing and serving to your guests. The monthly recipe is the best for making strudel. Included are three recipes for fillings. Have a great month! (Jé éto-á.ff'ff'&t osza&ácz ß&tfo The Hungarian Kitchen is a trademark of William S. Vasvary. 10 0 March 2011 0 William Penn Life
