oodles of strudel and some last minute fun with the daring bakers

the may daring bakers challenge was hosted by linda of make life sweeter! and courtney of coco cooks. they chose apple strudel from the recipe book kaffeehaus: exquisite desserts from the classic cafes of vienna, budapest and prague by rick rodgers.

so, i knew we were doing strudel when it was posted at the beginning of may, but don’t think for a minute that i was organized enough to make this ahead. no, in true soccermom fashion, i was scrambling to the finish line! and if i must say so myself, it turned out pretty good.

i made two batches of dough just like the directions suggested. i covered the table in a cloth and i pulled and pulled but did not quite reach the 2’x3′ that the recipe stated. however, i was close enough and decided to proceed. doing this reminded me of my days at the cia in our baking class. we were split into two teams and each team was handed a ball of phyllo dough. whichever team pulled it and stretched it the most with out tearing it, won. and that is about all i remembered until i began using the backs of my hands to stretch out this dough…

it was pretty thin but also inconsistent. the pattern on the cloth made that obvious so i was able to go back to the thick parts and stretch a little more.