Ok, this is wildly OT (but I guess so is most of the chatter here) and at least you can claim that this will enable you to check the authenticity of the dessert offerings at Biergarten - so it's actually on topic...
Have a look at this website, it will play a video :
http://www.essen-und-trinken.de/backschule/135146/strudelteig-grundrezept
The video will start after a stupid commercial, it can also be viewed commercial free at
youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lE_Yq8Ry00
I have translated all the working steps as they are laid out below the video (thanks to google which did the main translating, I just had to edit it into a useful text... for some reasons it kept translating strudel into "vortex" or "whirlpool"
)
Strudel dough basic recipe
Ingriedents:
300g flour
130ml water
3-4 EL vegetable oil
thinly sliced apples (about 1 kg)
bread crumbs
almonds (finely chopped) (optional)
raisins (optional) (Magdalene's addition to recipe; it is very common, but I personally don't like raisins in the strudel)
sugar
cinnamon (use lightly, it should not taste of cinnamon, just use it to enhance the taste!)
slightly whipped whipped cream (this can be substituted with melted butter)
melted butter
With a little practice strudel dough is easy to make. Due to its flexible structure, it can be pulled very thin with your hands. Filled with apples, nuts and cream, it becomes a dream ... (That's funny, the German doesn't rhyme here at all...)
Steps
1. Knead dough
Put flour, water and oil in a food processor or use hand mixer with dough hook. Knead for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough. If the dough is too dry, add water to it. If the dough is too runny, add more flour. The dough is good if it can be removed easily from the bowl.
2. Form a ball of dough
Take the dough out of the bowl and knead on a floured work surface briefly with your hands. The dough should feel elastic. Then form a ball out of the dough.
3. Brush dough
Put dough into a small bowl (which has been covered with flour) and brush with some oil, so that no skin forms on the surface. Cover with foil and let stand about 1 hour at room temperature.
4. Pat dough and prepare strudel towel
Using paper towels blot the oil from the dough. Put a kitchen towel on work surface and spread a little flour on it.
5. Roll out dough
Put the strudel dough on the floured towel. First press it flat with the heel of your hand and then roll out with a rolling pin from the center. In between, lift the dough up, turn around and flour a bit.
6. Pull dough
In order to get a very thin strudel dough, lift the dough with both hands and pull it over the back of the hands. Proceed with caution and put the dough back onto the cloth before it begins to break.
7. Make the edge of the dough thinner
Now gently pull the edges of the dough with your fingers thinner.
8. Fill dough
The rolled out strudel can now be filled, for example, with apple pieces, bread crumbs, nuts, cinnamon and sugar. A few blobs of whipped cream makes the strudel juicy. The edge of the dough can be left free.
9. Brush edge of the dough with butter
10. Roll up strudel
Cut the edge of the dough, leave only the top edge, so that all thicker dough is gone. Flap the dough at the lower end over the filling and roll up slowly with the help of the towel. The upper edge of the doughis then put over the strudel and the open ends at the sides can then be put together as well and cut off a bit. Make sure that you don't roll the strudel from the kitchen towel.
11. Lay it on the baking sheet
Gently place the strudel on a baking sheet with parchment paper with help of the cloth and shape into a U.
(Magdalene's comment: I would just make two strudels and put them on the baking sheet side by side. That's the way my family usually does it. You have more end pieces, but some like those since they are crunchier.)
12. Brush strudel
Now brussh the struden with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Put the strudel in a preheated oven at 190 ° C (electric oven) 45-50 minutes until golden brown. Strudel tastes hot or served cold.
Magdalene's comments:
The traditional way would be to serve it with a vanilla sauce (or custard), not ice cream!
There is a different way as well, where instead of putting it on a baking sheet, you put into a deeper dish (which should be filled by the strudel) and then pour milk into the dish and bake it that way. This eliminates any danger of drying out your strudel.
