Authentic Austrian Strudel Class
As if a visit to Schönbrunn Palace didn’t offer enough, one of the highlights is a demonstration on how to make an authentic Vienna apple strudel. You can enjoy a simple demonstration for about 30 minutes or even take a full class for 2 hours. Either way, you get to eat strudel, which makes most things worthwhile. The recipe is simple (you can find it here). It’s the technique that is key.
Once the dough it made, you roll it out a bit. It helped to have the spinning pastry stand covered with a pastry cloth and a really large rolling pin.
Then stretch and toss similar to a pizza dough, using only knuckles being careful to not poke through.
You stretch the dough over the pastry board. It should be so thin that you can read through it.
Pile on the filling into a long column to one side of the pastry.
Now take the end of the dough and fold it over the mound of apple filling. It’s fine if there are holes at this point as the dough will wrap around the strudel several times.
The easiest way wrap the really thin dough around the strudel is to lift the pastry cloth causing the strudel to evenly roll across the rest of the pastry, thus repeatedly wrapping itself. Our instructor did this in a startlingly quick motion similar to a magician pulling a tablecloth out from under the dishes.
Use the pastry cloth to transfer the strudel to a pan on which it will go into the oven.
Bake until golden brown and the house smells like strudel.
Enjoy a taste of Vienna!