Home Fish Stretch dough. Filo dough (stretched). Making strudel dough at home: an oriental recipe with photos

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Stretch dough. Filo dough (stretched). Making strudel dough at home: an oriental recipe with photos

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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 culinary 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 up 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 börek in the oven until golden brown.

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.
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

Sift the flour, make a “slide” in it, put lard, salt, yolks, vinegar there.
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!
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.
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 a 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

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, 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).

Karoly 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 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 steps, 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. Using 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 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 center, 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 filled 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.

Such a concept as stretch dough, also known as strudel dough, or home-made phyllo, is quite widely known in cooking and the food industry, especially in Mediterranean countries. Many people cook it very successfully at home, filling it with vegetable, meat and fruit fillings. The dough is elastic, soft, pliable and can be stretched to the point of tissue paper. That is why it was called phyllo, which is translated from Greek phyllon - “leaf”.

How to make such a masterpiece? The procedure for preparing stretch dough is quite simple: a fresh mass is prepared (the list of ingredients in all recipes is almost the same, the only difference is their quantity), and then it is rolled out to the thinnest state and stuffed with different fillings.

We present to your attention several recipes for making strudel dough. The dish turns out tasty and tender, no matter what filling you choose: sweet or not.

Traditional filo

To prepare, take:

premium quality wheat flour - three glasses (this is approximately 500 grams);
salt - about one teaspoon;
refined vegetable oil - approximately 5-6 tablespoons;
warm water (slightly warmed to 38 degrees) - about a glass or a little more.

To grease the dough, buy a small amount of butter or ghee. True, some housewives replace butter with good refined vegetable oil.

Manufacturing process:

Mix flour and salt, sift them through a sieve. It is advisable to do this twice.
Pour the required amount of vegetable oil into a bowl with flour, add warm water. Mix with a spoon, preferably a wooden one. You should get a cool fresh mass.
We put it on the table and knead it. No need to add flour!
We beat off a lump of dough, throwing it onto the work surface. We repeat this procedure fifteen times.
Place the mixture in a plastic bag, tie it and immerse it in a container filled with slightly warmed water (about 40 degrees).
Leave for ten minutes.
We divide the fresh mass into small balls, the size of tennis balls.
Roll out each lump, stretching it evenly on all sides of the work surface. If necessary, lightly sprinkle with flour.
Cover all the rolled out meadows with a damp towel and leave for a few minutes (five minutes is enough).
Then we roll it out again or stretch it with our hands until it becomes the thinnest. Be careful not to tear.
Brush each rolled pancake with melted butter and stack them in stacks of 3-4 pieces. As a result, we get several stacks.
The base is ready! Add any filling and bake in the oven until done (15-20 minutes at medium temperature)!

We warn you that the rolled out layers of dough dry out very quickly, so we recommend that you coat them thoroughly with oil or cover them with cling film.