Instructions

1. Prepare the cheese filling for your strudel with quark, ricotta or other fresh cheeses, as you wish. The whey in your cheese can make the pastry soggy, so drain it carefully and use either a beaten egg yolk or starchy binding ingredients such as breadcrumbs to help keep it dry. Set aside the finished filling in your refrigerator until it's needed.

2. Open your package of phyllo dough, and unroll it beside your work space. Keep the sheets covered with plastic film wrap at all times, because they can dry out and become unusable in just a few minutes.

3. Lay a sheet of phyllo on your work surface, and brush it with melted butter or spray it with oil. This acts as a moisture barrier, trapping steam between the layers of pastry and keeping them separate. Arrange a second sheet carefully on top of the first, and brush or spray that as well. Repeat, until you've made a suitable number of layers. Most recipes call for at least 3 sheets of dough, but you can use more if you wish.

4. Spoon the cheese filling onto your dough, making a cylindrical mound running parallel to the bottom edge of your phyllo dough. Leave at least a 1/2 inch of dough, or preferably 3/4 inch, without filling. Fold those sides inward, to seal the ends of the cheese filling.

5. Lift the bottom edge of the phyllo pastry and fold it over the filling, taking care not to squeeze out any of the cheese. Fold the dough again, lifting the filled portion and rolling it over the original edge to completely seal the cheese. Repeat, until you come to the far edge of the dough.

6. Brush or spray the edge of the dough to seal it in place, then transfer your strudel to a sheet pan or baking dish. Place the seam from the end of the sheet at bottom, where the weight of the strudel will hold it in place. Brush or spray the top of the strudel with oil or butter. Bake it at a moderately high temperature, 375 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, until golden brown.