AUTHENTIC GERMAN APPLE STREUDEL

Steps:

• 1. Make sure that the room you are working in is quite warm and draft free. Do not wear rings or bracelets.
• 2. Pre-soak the raisins in warm water in a bowl, just covering the top of the raisins.
• 3. Mix the flour, eggs, oil and salt. Add water and mix into dough. Turn out on floured board and knead for 10 minutes. Brush with melted butter and place in a greased bowl. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 45 minutes.
• 4. Put a fabric tablecloth on your table that hangs over the sides. Dust with flour and place the dough in the center. Flour your rolling pin and roll out to approximately 8" diameter.
• 5. Put your hands under the dough. Using the tops of your hands, gently pull the dough towards you. Generously brush the top of the dough with melted butter while you are doing this. Try not to make holes. Keep walking around the table, picking up and pulling the circle of dough until it is paper thin and you can see through it. It should be quite large. Grammy used to pull it to at least 6 feet across and ended up with a streudel about 3 feet long.
• 6. Sprinkle the dough all over with apples, some sugar, cinnamon and raisins. Drizzle melted butter over all. Walk around the table and trim off the thick edges with a scissor.
• 7. Lifting the edges of the tablecloth, fold the dough hanging over the edge of the table up and over the filling. Do this all the way around. Then pick the tablecloth up from one side. Use the tablecloth to roll the streudel and start rolling the streudel up completely. Seal the edges.
• 8. Place streudel onto pan (if large, make it horseshoe shaped). Bake at 350 for 45 to 55 minutes. Once cooled you can top with powdered sugar, ice cream or whipped cream.
• 9. NOTES: You can roll one large streudel as this recipe says and then cut into smaller streudels after baking, or you can divide dough into 2 or 3 balls before letting it rest. Then roll out 3 individual streudels. If you have a large enough table it is easier to roll once and divide later. **The size of the table also determines the size you can roll. Great Grammy had a 60" plus round oak table that she used, while Grammy had a smaller rectangular table. If you have a smaller table, definitely divide dough into at least 2 balls.