Strudel pastry is very elastic. It is made from flour with a high gluten content, little fat (butter) and no sugar. The pastry is rolled out and stretched very thinly over the back of the hand. Purists say it should be so thin that a newspaper can be read through it. Then the pastry is laid out on a tea towel and filled. Then it is rolled with the help of the towel and baked in an oven.

Traditional strudel pastry is different from strudels served in other parts of the world that are often made from filo or puff pastry. It probably had its origins in Byzantine or Middle Eastern pastries (see baklava),[citation needed] and is related to Balkan Burek.

The word itself derives from the German word Strudel, which literally means “eddy” or “whirlpool”.[1]

They are quite big in America I think, and taste very nice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strudel

both sites have good definitions, second has photo