What is the Origin of Strudel?

Anytime around the holidays, you tend to find more and more traditional fare cropping up in the average American kitchen. Most of these traditional foods are steeped in history, most often familial and passed down from parent (or grandparent) to child. One such time-honored recipe is that of the strudel. And if you're not from a family that has been making it for years, you may not know where it finds its origin.

History

The strudel is a pastry, with apple being the most popular of its flavors, which originated in Austria. It is said that, due to the amount of apples grown in the region, this dessert was created more out of necessity than anything else. Its main purpose was to not let the produce go to waste. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a union of dual monarchy that disappeared at the end of World War I, apples were used to create a sort of cider drink that was quite popular at the time. Any excess crop went to waste. As many people did at the time, they felt it necessary to use everything available, and so the strudel was born. The strudel of the time was usually made with a very basic dough of flour and fat, again lending to the belief that it was solely out of necessity that the strudel was created. The dough was rolled very thin, filled with chopped apples (not much else) and then folded into itself before baked in an oven.

Features

To make this basic dough, you would sift together 1 ½ cups of bread flour and ½ tsp. of salt. Once incorporated, cut in ¼ cup fat (shortening) until the mixture takes on a texture of a coarse meal. In a separate bow, beat together 1 egg and 3 tbsp. of water. Stir egg mixture into the meal until a soft dough is formed. Now, you've got your dough. As you may have noticed, no sugar is used in the traditional recipe, even though it is served as a sort of dessert. Remember, at the time, some recipes were created out of necessity more than anything else.

Types

As already mentioned, the strudel was basically created to use the excess apple crops so as not to waste any of the produce, but there are other types of strudel that can also be considered somewhat traditional. There is the cheese or sour cherry of the more sweetened variety and the spinach or sauerkraut on the more savory end. No matter what the flavor, the dough would never change or vary, only the ingredients used inside.

Time Frame

When preparing a traditional strudel, be it sweet or savory, there are two basic methods that stay the same. The way it is rolled and the way it is baked. Once the dough is rolled out almost paper thin, the remaining ingredients are spread over the pastry before it is rolled into itself like a jelly roll. It is then baked in a 350 degree oven for almost an hour and then served. Today, you'll often find the strudel made with a more flaky crust and a sweeter filling, but this variation is far from traditional.

Expert Insight

It is believed that the strudel was inspired by a Middle Eastern pastry known as baklava, though the pastries vary greatly.