93-year old Mom made hand-pulled strudel for as long as I can remember…and we’re talking decades. Each dough batch was made from hand and kneaded by hand…until dough hooks on a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and then a mutant-size Hobart 40-quart mixer came into her life. She would make 20 strudels for holidays and 50 for weddings. She also sold 24 strips twice a week to local stores. But the wedding this year would be different since she has been unable to make them for at least 10 years now. Two of my sisters and I have tried to duplicate her recipe, but it was very touchy-feely: “no…add a bit more flour (pokes a finger)…now a bit more…no, not that much….”
Being the anal-retentive engineer I am, this drove me crazy because I wanted measurements but mom baked by instinct. Two of my sisters and I watched her and knew the basic concept, but all of us failed miserably when it came to the stretching part. Holy holes…nothing but holes in our doughs.
I had delivered my cookie donations Friday morning and thought I’d give it one last try, but not with Mom’s vague recipe (check out Lidia B’s version and you’ll be close—she has family in the Pittsburgh area). This time I opted to go with King Arthur’s version:
https://www.google.com/search?q=king+arthur+strudel+dough&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
Success!
I packaged them up and wrote: “To Adam and Justine with love from Baba” and had my mom present them to her grandson. It may not have been “mom’s” but it was a strudel at a family wedding and that’s the best I could achieve.
PS: Another grandson heard strudel had made its appearance at the wedding and wanted a slice. My sister said it was a gift for Adam. Grandson Ben said: “There is NO SUCH THING AS AN ADAM STRUDEL!!”
Being the anal-retentive engineer I am, this drove me crazy because I wanted measurements but mom baked by instinct. Two of my sisters and I watched her and knew the basic concept, but all of us failed miserably when it came to the stretching part. Holy holes…nothing but holes in our doughs.
I had delivered my cookie donations Friday morning and thought I’d give it one last try, but not with Mom’s vague recipe (check out Lidia B’s version and you’ll be close—she has family in the Pittsburgh area). This time I opted to go with King Arthur’s version:
https://www.google.com/search?q=king+arthur+strudel+dough&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
Success!
I packaged them up and wrote: “To Adam and Justine with love from Baba” and had my mom present them to her grandson. It may not have been “mom’s” but it was a strudel at a family wedding and that’s the best I could achieve.
PS: Another grandson heard strudel had made its appearance at the wedding and wanted a slice. My sister said it was a gift for Adam. Grandson Ben said: “There is NO SUCH THING AS AN ADAM STRUDEL!!”