Strudel & Leaved Pastries

All leaved pastries, except puff, are made in the same way—by rolling and pulling pliable dough into a sheet so thin that it is said you can read your love-letters through it! In Austria, Germany and eastern Europe, flaky strudel dough vies with puff pastry for popularity, while half a dozen leaved pastries are found in Mediterranean countries, the most familiar being Greek phyllo.

Gluten is the enemy of most pastry doughs. However, for leaved doughs it is developed quite deliberately by kneading—as with pasta and bread doughs—to make it very pliable. The dough needs lengthy resting before it is rolled, pulled to a sheet and brushed with fat, which is usually melted butter, except in Mediterranean countries where they tend to use oil.