Rétes

I would love to tell you that yesterday I made strudel from The Hungarian Cookbook, brought it to my friends’ holiday party, and it was delicious. Unfortunately, things did not go exactly as planned.

Remember that this is the second strudel recipe I was able to find in my collection of antique cookbooks. Here is the comparison chart with the scores for the other strudel recipe.

Recipe	Pastry	Filling	Ease of Prep	Overall
German	4	7	4	15
Hungarian

Rétes/Strudel

1 tbsp vinegar

4 C flour

1 egg, beaten

1 tbsp butter, melted

Add enough lukewarm water to the vinegar to equal 1 C of liquid. Set aside.

Place flour in a bowl and make a well in the center. Pour egg and butter into the well. Add liquid mixture gradually to flour while mixing until all flour is moistened. Turn out and knead on lightly floured surface. Hold dough high above board and hit it hard against the board 100 to 125 times, or until dough is smooth and elastic. Shape dough into smooth ball and put onto lightly floured surface. Brush top with melted butter and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Poor little loser dough :(

Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately, this turned out to be a TERRIBLE ratio of flour to liquid. The dough felt very dry during the “throwing” process, but I let it sit, hoping that it would be moist enough to stretch. I was wrong. I laid out a floured sheet on my kitchen table just like with the German recipe and tried to stretch the dough, but this version was so dry that it would not stretch. After about 20 minutes of trying, I gave up on the Hungarian dough, and instead re-made the German strudel dough. This time I made sure to stretch it much thinner.

Although the Hungarian version of the strudel dough was a total flop, the fun thing about the Hungarian version is that there are multiple filling recipes. Of course, you could stick with the traditional apple, but the Hungarian recipe also includes cherry, poppy seed, nut, and cottage cheese filling recipes. I hate cottage cheese, and some people are allergic to nuts, so I decided to stick with the cherry and poppy seed fillings to share with my friends.

Meggy Töltelék/Cherry Filling

3 ½ C drained canned sour pitted cherries

¾ C almonds

1 to 1 ¼ C sugar (depending on tartness of cherries)

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ C butter, melted and cooled

½ C breadcrumbs

Drain cherries thoroughly, removing as much moisture as possible. Chop almonds and combine with sugar and cinnamon, then set aside.

After strudel dough is stretched and slightly dried, sprinkled butter over half the dough, then sprinkle breadcrumbs over top. Layer cherries over breadcrumbs and sprinkle almond mixture over top. Roll as usual. Brush top of strudel with egg wash. Bake at 350^oF for 35 to 45 minutes or until crisp and flaky.

I have another confession to make: in my local grocery store, I could not find plain canned cherries, only cherry pie filling, so I used that instead (remember not to drain it!). I did not add any sugar because the pie filling was pretty sweet already, but I did add the almonds and cinnamon. I added a little bit more breadcrumbs to combat the moisture of the pie filling. I think the excess moisture in the pie filling is what caused the strudel to burst, but it was tasty. I mean, it was really just pie filling with almonds in it, which means you can't really go wrong, but it also wasn't that original.

Mák Töltelék/Poppy Seed Filling

½ lb freshly ground poppy seeds

1 C sugar

½ C raisins

2 tsp grated lemon peel

½ C butter, melted and cooled.

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.

After strudel dough is stretched and slightly dried, sprinkled butter over half the dough, then sprinkle poppy seed mixture evenly over top. Roll as usual. Brush top of strudel with egg wash. Bake at 350^oF for 35 to 45 minutes or until crisp and flaky.

Please DO NOT just use the poppy seeds in the little glass bottle in your spice cabinet – it’s WAY too expensive to get a ½ lb. that way! Instead, I went to a store that sells bulk dry goods (I went to Whole Foods, but I know there are other places where you can get them.) Grind the poppy seeds in a food processor or coffee mill – they will give off an interesting aroma once ground. That aroma translated into an interesting flavor - I had never had that many poppy seeds in one bite before. I'm not sure, but I think it may have been a few too many. However, this filling recipe was much more original.

So, after all that, we’re left with two lovely looking strudels that are sort of German and sort of Hungarian. As far as ratings, I will have to give the Hungarian strudel a 0/10 for the dough because it was un-stretchable and therefore unusable (it went in the trash can). But for filling this recipe scores a little higher. Although the cherry filling was not that original, and the poppy seed filling may have been a bit much, the Hungarian version of strudel does deserve some points for allowing a choice of fillings and providing several options, so I'll give it a 7/10. When we look at ease of preparation, sad to say, the Hungarian recipe again falls short because I had to scrap the dough and start over again. But, it doesn't get a complete zero because the fillings were very easy to prepare, so I'll score it with a 3/10. Unfortunately, though, that still scores the Hungarian strudel recipe at a 10, while German pulled off a 15. Way to go, German & Viennese Cookbook! Better luck next time, Hungarian Cookbook.

Recipe	Pastry	Filling	Ease of Prep	Overall
German	4	7	4	15
Hungarian	0	7	3	10

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!