Strudel Dough

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup warm water
1/2 cup butter, melted

Mix salt, flour and egg. Add water. Mix dough quickly with a knife, then knead on board, stretching it up and down to make it elastic, until it leaves the board clean. Toss on a small, well-floured board. Cover with a hot bowl and keep it warm 1/2 hour or longer.

To stretch the dough, have materials for filling ready before stretching. Work quickly. Lay dough in center of a well-floured tablecloth on table about 30 x 48 inches. Flour dough. Roll into a long oval with rolling pin. Brush dough with 1/4 cup of the melted butter. With hands under dough, palms down, pull and stretch the dough gradually all around the table, toward the edges, until it hangs over the table and is as thin as paper. Cut off dough that hangs over edge and drip 1/4 cup more butter over surface of dough.

To fill, roll and shape, sprinkle filling over 3/4 of the greased stretched dough. Fold a little of the dough at one end over the filling. Hold the cloth at that end high with both hands and the strudel will roll itself over and over, like a large jellyroll. Trim edges again. Twist roll into a greased 16 x 11-inch pan or cut into 3 strands and lay them side by side in pan.

To bake strudel, brush top with more melted butter. Bake at 400 degrees F for 1/2 hour.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake 1/2 hour longer, or until brown and crisp. Brush well with butter from time to time during baking, using all together about 1 cup melted butter for the strudel with its fillings.