Rétes

Ingredients

Dough

• 400 gstrong white flour
• 220 mlwarm water
• 1egg
• 2 tbspoil
• 1 tbspwhite wine vinegar
• 1 tspsalt

To stretch and layer

• 150 gbutter, melted
• 100 gfine breadcrumbs, toasted

Cherry filling

• 800 gsour cherries, stoned
• 80 gsugar
• 2 tbspsemolina
• 1 tspcinnamon

Curd filling

• 600 gdry curd cheese
• 2egg yolks
• 80 gsugar
• 80 graisins
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tspvanilla

To finish

• icing sugar

Equipment

• a large table and a clean cotton tablecloth

Directions

1. Mix the flour, salt, warm water, egg, oil and vinegar into a soft dough. Now knead it hard for 15 minutes, longer than for almost any other dough. Knead it far past the point where it looks smooth. You are developing gluten to the absolute maximum, because it has to stretch to about a square metre without tearing.
2. Shape it into a ball, brush it all over with oil, cover it with a warm bowl, and rest it at least an hour. The oil coat and the warm covering keep it soft and relaxed, and a cold rested dough will not stretch.
3. Cover a large table with a clean cotton tablecloth and dust it lightly with flour. Roll the dough out on the cloth as far as a rolling pin will take it. Now stretch it by hand, and this is the part that takes practice.
4. Put the backs of your hands under the dough and draw them apart gently, working from the centre outward, moving around the table as you go. Use the backs of your hands rather than your fingers, because fingertips and nails puncture it immediately.
5. Work outward from the middle and keep moving round, so it thins evenly. Let gravity help by lifting the dough slightly and letting it hang. Keep going until it covers the table and is genuinely translucent. Tears in the middle can be pinched shut, and tears at the thick rim get trimmed off anyway. Trim the thick edges off with scissors.
6. Scatter toasted breadcrumbs over the third nearest you. They absorb the juice from the fruit and stop it soaking through and tearing the pastry, and this is the step home bakers skip. Spread the filling in a line along that same third, leaving a border at each end.
7. Add the sugar at the last moment, because sugar draws water out of fruit within minutes and a wet filling ruins the pastry. The dough is too thin to handle and the cloth does the work.
8. Brush the top with more melted butter. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 35 to 40 minutes until deep golden and crisp. Brush it with butter again halfway through, which is what gives the shattering layers. Cool it 20 minutes before cutting, because hot strudel collapses under the knife.
9. Dust generously with icing sugar and cut it on the diagonal with a serrated knife. Serve warm, and it is best on the day it is baked.

Technique

• Ready-made filo is a genuine shortcut, using several buttered sheets, and it is not the same thing.
• Cherry, curd, poppy seed and apple are the four classic Hungarian fillings.
• Túrós rétes, the curd one, is the most characteristically Hungarian.

Substitutions

• Filo pastry, layered with butter between sheets.
• Ricotta drained overnight in place of Hungarian túró.

Variations

• With poppy seed, mákos rétes.
• With apple and cinnamon.
• With cabbage and pepper, as a savoury version.

History

Hungarian strudel of hand-stretched dough filled with cherry, curd or poppy seed; the technique came through Ottoman and Austrian channels.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rétes?

Rétes is a bread & pastry from Hungary: hungarian strudel with cherry, apple, poppy or curd. Hungarian strudel of hand-stretched dough filled with cherry, curd or poppy seed; the technique came through Ottoman and Austrian channels.

How long does Rétes take to make?

Rétes takes 1 hr plus 1 hr resting of preparation and 40 min of cooking. The recipe makes 2 strudels. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Rétes?

Yes, within limits. Filo pastry, layered with butter between sheets. Ricotta drained overnight in place of Hungarian túró.

What is the most important thing to get right in Rétes?

Mix the flour, salt, warm water, egg, oil and vinegar into a soft dough. Now knead it hard for 15 minutes, longer than for almost any other dough. Knead it far past the point where it looks smooth. You are developing gluten to the absolute maximum, because it has to stretch to about a square metre without tearing.