Old Fashioned Pear Strudel

JenJenMarie's Note:

This is another one of Mrs. Roach's recipes. It is Czech/Austrian. It is the best strudel you will ever eat. It is a lot of work but well worth it. I have to make some without raisens because my husband does not like them. To me, it's not a strudel if it does not have raisens! I have been making these since I was probably 7 years old. FYI, along with sopapillas, strudel is the official pastry of Texas. You can make this with apples, but I grew up making it with pears. Prep time does not include overnight refrigeration of dough.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 2 hrs
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 64

Yield: 8.0 strudels

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups margarine, softened
• 2 cups warm milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 6 cups sifted flour

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups margarine, melted
• 1 (15 ounce) package golden raisins
• 1 (14 ounce) package coconut flakes
• 1 (12 ounce) package vanilla wafers, crushed fine
• 2 cups pecans, finely chopped
• 1 -2 cup sugar
• 30 -35 pears
• cinnamon

Directions:

1. Combine all dough ingredients in a large bowl. You can either stir by hand or use a Kitchenaid Mixer with a dough hook. Thoroughly combine. This dough will be sticky. If it is too sticky add a little more flour and stir. Once the dough is right, cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. Pears must be prepared right before you plan to assemble the strudels. Take the dough out of the refrigerator before you begin the pears. Peel and core the pears. You can soak them in water with lemon juice to keep them from browning too much until you shred them. Using a food processor with the shredder blade in it, shred all the pears. Put shredded pears in a strainer and get as much juice out as you can. (You can reserve the juice for other recipes, if desired).
3. Put everything in separate bowls in the area you will be working. Also, have a bowl of flour available as you will need it when rolling out the dough. Using a knife, cut the dough in the bowl into 8 wedges, as you would a pie.
4. Flour your work area, your hands, and your rolling pin. Form your dough wedge into a ball. Dough will be sticky so add flour as needed. Roll dough out into as round of a shape as you can, about 1/8 of an inch thick.
5. Brush on melted butter leaving an inch border. Sprinkle with vanilla wafer crumbs, then sprinkle coconut, nuts, and raisens, Sprinkle on a layer of pears. Sprinkle pears with cinnamon and sugar. All ingredients should be in thin layers and an inch border should be left bare. If you add too much, you can tear your dough or it can break open while baking.
6. Fold the inch of bear dough over the topping all the way around. Starting at one end, roll the dough up leaving the seam side down. Tuck the ends under so the filling does not come out. Cover a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Repeat 7 more times. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.
7. I bake 2 at a time. When they are done, brush them with melted margarine and sprinkle the top with sugar.
8. You can also bake them partially, about 30 minutes, let them cool, wrap them in foil, and freeze them. If freezing them, only brush top with margarine, do not sprinkle with sugar. 8 strudels are a lot to eat at one time, so I always freeze some for later. When you want to eat them, let it thaw completely and bake for about 20 minutes at 350, until golden brown. Brush with margarine and sprinkle with sugar.