Chicken Keema Strudel (Daring Bakers Challenge)

This was the first time I participated in the Daring Baker’s Challenge and I almost missed the deadline. I actually forgot that I had signed up for it.  I manged to fit it in the during the long weekend and Aditya had a lot of fun helping me with it.

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 Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Though the original challenge was for an apple strudel the hosts had allowed freedom in the choice of filling and I decided to make a savory strudel. I used chicken keema (chicken mince fry)as a filling. I had remembered about the challenge only on the 17th of this month and the challenge was due on the 27th. With less than 10 days left and a first time challenge, I guess I felt a wee bit overwhelmed.

Once I made the dough though I was more confident that it was doable. 

Strudel Dough Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup allpurpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 7 Tbsp water, plus more if needed
• 2 Tbsp canola oil, plus more for coating the dough
• 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

Method

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
   Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.
2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
   Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).
3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
   Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.
4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it’s about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Notes

• The above method instructions are as stated in the recipe. The list of Ingredients is the ones I used. The recipe called for unbleached flour but I had Allpurpose flour on hand so I used that. Also it called for apple cider vinegar, but I was out of all types of vinegar except Red wine vinegar (darn!!! Just when I need something I seem to be out of the particular ingredient ). The third was I used canola oil instead of vegetable oil.
• When it came to kneading the dough, I let my mixer knead it until the dough was smouth. That might have been a mistake I feel.  I let it rest for over two hours and when I tried to roll it out it kept shrinking back on me just a wee bit.

• I only used half of the dough in the recipe, just to be on the safe side.

• One of the posts in the Daring Bakers forum said that the dough had to be so thin that one should be able to read through it. So here is a picture to test the readability factor.

• A collegue of mine makes rotis by flatteing two round of dough one on top of the other and rolling them out together. This results in really thin rotis. I used the same principle and folded the dough over itself in half and rolled it out. This helped in making the dough really thin. Unfortunately I forgot taking a picture of this step.
• Once the dough was ready to be filled, I was forced to take a break and step away as Ujwala decided to have and afternoon nap tantrum. I guess this might have resulted in the dough drying out a bit, as I forgot to cover it before stepping away. 
• My oven temperature seems to be on the higher side in general and my strudel was done in just about 20 min.
• Overall result was good and it tasted a bit like a keema samosa to me . Aditya loved it and ate most of it himself.

• But my overall feeling was that I could have streched out the dough a lot more, if I had been a bit more patient . It might have resulted in a more thin and flaky dough.