Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy saucepan for semolina
• •Large clean cotton cloth for stretching dough
• •Rolling pin
• •Baking tray (40cm or longer)
• •Pastry brush
• •Hand mixer or stand mixer for egg whites

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the strudel dough

   Mound the griffiges Mehl on a clean work surface and make a well in the center. Pour in the warm water, oil, vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Work everything together with your hands, pulling the flour in gradually from the edges. Knead the dough for a full ten minutes. It will start out rough and sticky. Keep going. By the end it should be smooth, soft, and elastic, pulling back gently when you stretch it. Shape it into a ball, brush the surface lightly with oil, cover with a warm bowl turned upside down, and let it rest for at least thirty minutes.

   The vinegar helps relax the gluten, which makes the dough easier to stretch later. The warm water activates it. Between the two, you're setting yourself up to pull that dough thin without it tearing on you.
2. 2

   Cook the semolina filling

   Bring the milk to a gentle simmer in a heavy saucepan. Pour in the semolina in a thin, steady stream, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring. The mixture will thicken quickly into a smooth, dense porridge, about three to four minutes. It should pull away from the sides of the pan cleanly. Take it off the heat and transfer to a large bowl. Let it cool until you can comfortably hold your hand against the side of the bowl.

3. 3

   Build the filling

   Beat the 80g butter with the sugar, Vanillezucker, and lemon zest until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each. Fold this mixture into the cooled semolina until evenly combined. The filling will become lighter and richer. Stir in the rum-soaked raisins. In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to stiff, glossy peaks. Fold them into the semolina mixture in two additions, gently, using a large metal spoon. You want to keep that air. It's what makes the filling set up light and pillowy inside the strudel instead of sitting like a dense brick.

   The filling must be cool before you add the butter and egg mixture. If the semolina is still hot it will melt the butter and scramble the yolks, and you'll have to start over.
4. 4

   Stretch the dough

   Lay a clean cotton cloth over your table and dust it generously with flour. Place the rested dough in the center and roll it out as far as you can with a rolling pin. Then slide your hands underneath, palms down, knuckles up, and start stretching from the center outward. Work your way around the dough, pulling gently and letting gravity help. The dough should stretch to roughly 60 by 40 centimeters, thin enough to read a newspaper through. Gretel always said that if you can't see your hand underneath, it's still too thick. Trim any thick edges with scissors.

   If the dough tears, don't panic. Small tears won't ruin the strudel. Overlap the torn edges slightly and carry on. The filling will hold everything together once it bakes.
5. 5

   Toast breadcrumbs and assemble

   Melt the 30g butter in a small pan and toast the breadcrumbs over medium heat, stirring constantly, until golden and fragrant. Two minutes, no more. Toasted breadcrumbs absorb moisture from the filling and keep the bottom of the strudel from going soggy. Brush the entire stretched dough with melted butter. Scatter the toasted breadcrumbs evenly across the surface, leaving a five-centimeter border on all sides. Spread the semolina filling in a wide strip along the long edge nearest to you, covering roughly the bottom third of the dough.

6. 6

   Roll the strudel

   Fold the side edges of the dough inward over the filling to seal the ends. Then, using the cloth underneath to help you, lift the edge nearest to you and roll the strudel away from you in one steady motion. The cloth does the work. Don't use your hands to roll or you'll tear the dough. Let it fall gently, seam side down, onto a baking tray lined with parchment. Curve it slightly into a crescent if it's too long for your tray. Brush the top generously with melted butter.

7. 7

   Bake the strudel

   Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about thirty-five to forty minutes. After fifteen minutes, brush with melted butter again. The strudel is done when the pastry is deep golden brown and the layers along the sides look flaky and dry to the touch. You'll see the dough puff slightly where the filling has set and expanded. Let it rest on the tray for ten minutes before cutting. The filling needs that time to firm up or it will ooze when you slice.

8. 8

   Slice and serve

   Cut generous slices with a sharp serrated knife, showing the spiral of thin dough layers wrapped around the pale, set semolina filling inside. Dust each slice with powdered sugar and serve warm with vanilla sauce poured alongside, not over the top. The sauce pools on the plate and you drag each forkful through it. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Use griffiges Mehl if you can find it. Austrian coarse-milled flour has less protein than standard all-purpose, which makes a dough that stretches more willingly and bakes up more tender. If you can't find it, use a lower-protein flour or mix half all-purpose with half cake flour.
• •Soak the raisins in rum for at least an hour, or better, overnight. Gretel always said unsoaked raisins in a strudel are just dried-out disappointments taking up space. The rum plumps them and gives the filling a background warmth you can't get any other way.
• •Don't skip toasting the breadcrumbs. They form a barrier between the wet filling and the stretched dough, keeping the bottom layers crisp. Untoasted breadcrumbs taste like nothing. Toasted ones taste like butter and toast, which is exactly what you want.
• •Serve this warm, not hot. Ten minutes of resting lets the filling set up properly, and warm vanilla sauce on the side is what makes it a complete dish. If you serve it without the sauce, you've served half a recipe.

Advance Preparation

• •The strudel dough can rest for up to two hours under the warm bowl. Longer than that and it starts to dry out at the edges.
• •The semolina filling can be made up to four hours ahead and refrigerated, but fold in the egg whites just before assembling. The whites deflate if they sit.
• •Vanilla sauce can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently, stirring, and add a splash of milk if it thickens too much.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)