Push the dough off your fingers and scrape it onto your work surface,
then knead for an energetic 5–6 minutes. Only dust with flour as
needed to prevent sticking to achieve a dough that’s taut, springy
and smooth. Wrap in plastic and rest for at least 2 hours at room
temperature or chill overnight, but bring to room temperature before
rolling. The dough will relax as it rests.

To begin stretching, dust your work surface lightly with the cornflour.

Cornflour is better than flour – it has a silky release. Dust both sides of
the dough with cornflour and roll it out to a 35–40 cm (13¾–15¾ in)
circle-ish/square with a rolling pin. Place the dough circle to the
side, then lay the strudel cloth/s down and sprinkle generously with
cornflour. Place the dough circle back on top.

Using a rolling pin on cloth will result in a bunched-up dough.

If you have some strudel skills, you can start the stretch by draping the
rolled dough over the back of your lightly curved hands (rings off, please).

Start with your fingertips touching, then gently widen the space between.

Imagine you’re holding a halved hamburger and you are pulling the halves
away from each other (A, page 81). Repeat this action until you need the
safety of the work surface.

With the dough circle flat on the cloth/s and starting anywhere
along the edge, place one hand flat on the dough and with
the other hand, start gently tugging a section until it feels it
has stretched as far as it can (B, page 81) – around 4–5 cm
(1½–2 in). Then hold that section back down onto the cloth for a
few seconds to ‘set the stretch’. If you move methodically around
the sheet, you will give the dough sections adequate recovery time
before stretching that same edge again (C, page 81). The dough
will happily yield further resting between stretches. If one side
stretches more than the other, shuffle the sheet to create more cloth
space for the dough to grow in area. To thin out thicker areas, lift
a section up and give it a flutter.

Don’t be stressed about any holes – the strudel will be rolled up so they will
be well hidden.

Having a baking pal is very helpful, so you can create a gentle tension
of pulling opposite sides. The technique with two people is a little different:
Standing opposite each other, clasp the dough between the palms of both
hands and stretch it around 5 cm (2 in) each time. Move to the next section,
still opposite each other, and stretch again.

Tease out the thicker border dough with your fingers (D, page 81)
but don’t fret about a heavy hem, as we will trim that off later,
before rolling.

continued …