Have you ever tasted a real Hungarian strudel? No? Well you are definitely in for a treat!

We are sure almost everyone is familiar with what a strudel is, but to be on the safe side let us elaborate. A strudel is a type of layered pastry with a usually sweet filling. It became popular in the 18th century throughout the Habsburg Empire, which Hungary was a part of.

Even though strudel originates from Austria, it is now an integral part of Hungarian cuisine and is considered to be one of the most beloved traditional pastries among Hungarians.

There are different ways to make a strudel – the Hungarian way is thin pastry and lots of filling while in Austria they do it the other way around. What is the secret to the Hungarian recipe?

It’s all in the dough! The dough only has a handful of ingredients (only flour, oil, and salt). The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly with the help of a clean linen tea towel. How do we test the quality of the dough? You put a newspaper under the rolled out, stretched dough, the dough is considered thin enough when the newspaper text is legible through the pastry. Stretching the dough is not an easy task, as you can see there are some challenges that you must face (quite literally) during the process.

As the below photo demonstrates, one can certainly battle with the strudel dough.

(BBT Online Photographer Jonathan Ramael)

According to historians in the olden days, a girl could only get married when she was able to make the perfect thin strudel dough! If this was the expectation nowadays, there would be lot of single women in Hungary. Luckily now you can buy and taste a perfect strudel choosing from loads of different fillings (including savory ones). Adventures guests can even learn the skills while having a few good laughs!

Should you like to know more about the strudel please contact our team at Ovation Hungary DMC or read more about them here!