Of all my mother in law Irene’s recipes, this is my favorite. It’s a family standard she created in the 1960’s that has withstood the test of time and pleased hundreds of guests at parties, dinners and various gatherings over the years.
This started out as a recipe from the New York Times in the 60’s. Irene modified it by replacing the original filo dough with her mothers sour cream pastry, then added vermouth to the filling along with an increased amount of sour cream. And she’s still tweaking it – tonight she told me that of late she has increased the mushroom amounts.
I’ve made this myself at least 6 times, and it’s never failed me. It’s easy to make ahead a freeze, making it prefect for parties.
If you do use this recipe, please be sure to credit Irene. It’s a one of a kind, and it’s pure gold.
MUSHROOM STRUDEL
Pastry
½ lb. Sweet butter
½ pint sour cream
2 cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
Place flour and salt in food processor. Pulse for a second. Cut in butter and pulse ‘til crumbly, then add sour cream and pulse ‘til mixed but ready to hold together. Place on floured pastry board and knead briefly and roll into a ball. Divide in ¼’s. Refrigerate overnight.
Filling
2 tbsps. Sweet butter
1 ¼ lb. Mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tbsps. Finely chopped shallots or scallions
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsps. Dry vermouth
½ tsp. thyme
1/3 cup sour cream
Breadcrumbs (optional)
Egg wash ( 1 egg, 1 tbsp water)
Remove pastry from refrigerator to warm a bit while preparing the mushroom filling.
Melt the butter in a large skillet and add the mushrooms, shallots, salt, pepper, vermouth and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is mushy. Let cool slightly. Stir in the sour cream. Cool until ready to fill pastry.
Roll out ¼ pastry on floured board as thin as possible into a 9 or 10 inch round. Sprinkle dry bread crumbs over pastry. Then, using ¼ of the cooled mushroom mixture make a sausage shape roll at the end of the pastry closest to you, about an inch in from the edge. Roll pastry like a jelly roll, closing in the ends and stretching the pastry roll gently length-wise. Place on flat cookie sheet, seam side down and proceed with the remaining pastry and filling and placing them on the same cookie sheet when each is rolled. Make an egg wash of 1 egg with 1 tsp. water and brush on the rolls. With a fork pierce top of pastry roll 3 or 4 times.
Place in freezer a few hours or overnight until frozen. Then wrap in aluminum foil for freezer storage.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap frozen strudel rolls and place on ungreased jelly roll pans about 3 inches apart. Bake about 1 hour until nicely browned on top.
Cool for 10 or 15 minutes before slicing them diagonally into serving pieces about an inch and a half wide.
Makes 4 rolls.
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A few tricks for working with the cooked strudel. Get youself a long spatula and use it to remove the strudels from the pan. Here, I’ll let Irene show you how…
Cut them on a diagonal using a very sharp knife.
Then transfer to your serving platter using the long spatula again.
Mmmn, that looks lethal and delicious.
Have you ever considered a *gasp* *shudder* electric knife?
I know, they seem superfluous in a kitchen equipped with high-quality forged knives as seen in the last photo, but ever since I got one as a gag gift ten years ago, I’ve been a convert. Forget about using them to, say, carve a turkey (although, I do like to use it after I’ve removed the breasts, to get thin even slices). The sole reason you need to get one is the ability to cut things of two different textures (ie, flaky/moist or crunchy/chewy) without edge crush. You will be astonished.
Don’t spend very much. The Black & Decker is quite good and cheap.
Eric, Waiting For An Embarassment Of Mushrooms
Eric – very interesting idea – we make the strudel often enough that getting the knife just to cut it would be a worthwhile investment.
Irene, your thoughts?
Wow. Looks tasty, electric knife or not!
As TBTAM’s sister I have had the enjoyment of these strudels on many occasions…de-lish!
P.S. I am an electric knife convert as well!
– OBS Housekeeper
Thank you TBTAM for sharing this long awaited family secret. Does Irene have suggestions for what might accompany to create a light meal of it, by way of veggies, tubers, and the like?
ummmm. I can’t wait to try this! (and I have an electric knife….)
to PJG’s question….What to serve with it. I usually serve it as an appetizer or on a large buffet supper. It goes very well with baked or poached salmon, and/or cucumber salad or slow roasted tomatoes. If you want a light meal, serve a tomato based vegetable soup, then the strudel and the cucumbers or a green salad.
Help!
I’d like to make this for a Super Bowl party next week, but Darling Spouse suggested a dry run beforehand. It was a good idea, because I have a question:
The recipe says to roll the dough into an 9- or 10-inch round, but I can’t figure out how to “jelly-roll” a circle; won’t the middle come out much fatter than the ends? Also, you later say to “roll lengthwise”. Do you perhaps mean a 9 x 10 inch rectangle? (Or at least an ovoid?) That would make a lot more sense.
#1
It’s sort of an oval, but you can do a rectangle if you like –
The dimensions are there so that you don;t roll the dough out too thin, or it starts to tear. Grab the end closest to you and roll it over the filling, then roll, sort of pulling the bottom back a bit as you do so it stays tight.
It’s not hard – my 11 year old does it for me when I make them.
Let me know how they turn out!
Let me know how they turn out!
You asked.
TBTAM, Did I pick up elsewhere on your blog site that there was a correction to be made in the origianal recipe posted? If so, do tell, what ’tis?
pjg –
I accidentally deleted some text, turning the 1/3 cup of sour cream into 3 cups. Irene caught the error within a few hours of my posting the recipe, but not before #1 dinosaur printed it out and subsequently made a big batch of mushroom mush.
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