Strudel Dough

Put flour, egg, salt, 2 tbsp. of the oil, and 1⁄4 cup lukewarm water into a mixing bowl and work with your hands until dough forms a ball, then knead on a clean surface until smooth, 5–7 minutes. Shape dough into a ball, coat with 1 tsp. oil, and put on a plate. Cover with a large inverted bowl and let dough rest in a warm spot for 1—2 hours. Prepare strudel filling of your choice while dough rests.

Spread a clean, fine-textured, lint-free, 3' x 3' cloth on a large smooth surface and weight down corners. Lightly flour cloth. Stretch dough into a 6" round and set in center of cloth. Using a floured rolling pin, roll dough out into a large, thin round using firm strokes radiating outward from center (without rolling pin back and forth).

Make sure your hands and forearms are clean and bare to the elbows. Dust backs of your hands and forearms with flour. Slide dough onto the backs of your hands and forearms so that your hands are in center of round and dough drapes evenly over your forearms with no folds. Use the backs of your hands and forearms to carefully stretch dough out from center into a larger round, rotating it on your forearms to stretch it evenly and letting it tip from side to side to stretch it further. When dough is stretched as far as you think it can go without ripping, flop it back onto cloth and straighten out any wrinkles.

The dough will be an almost translucent whitish yellow in the thinner spots and a deeper yellow in the thicker spots. Carefully slide the back of your hand underneath thicker spots and, using your other hand on top of dough to help the one below, stretch dough, pulling and coaxing it until it is thin and translucent and covers most of the cloth in a somewhat rectangular shape. Then, again sandwiching dough between your hands or using your fingertips, gently stretch dough's edges until dough is nearly the size of the cloth. If your dough has any holes, pinch their edges together. Trim off thick dough edges. Dough is now ready to be filled and rolled.