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Apple Strudel

Apple Strudel

Apple Strudel - light dough filled with apples, raisins and pine nuts and baked.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Austrian, Hungarian, Italian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 1 x 45 cm - 18 inch long Strudel

Ingredients

For the dough

  • 250 gms – 2 cups flour sifted + 30 gms – 1/4 cup to work with during the rolling process
  • 150 ml – 5 oz. lukewarm water
  • 20 gms – 0.7 oz. vegetable oil I used sunflower + 1 tsp to grease the dough
  • 1 pinch salt

For the filling

  • 1 ½ kg – 3.3 lbs. apples peeled, cored and sliced
  • 2 tbsp rum
  • 60 gms – 2 oz. sultanas or raisins
  • 1 tbsp pine nuts
  • 120 gms – 4 oz. sugar
  • 100 gms – 3.5 oz. breadcrumbs
  • 60 gms – 2 oz. butter
  • Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 ½ tbsp cinnamon
  • 6 tbsp apricot jam
  • Icing sugar

Instructions

  1. Put the sifted flour, salt, vegetable oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the hook attachment. Add the lukewarm water, little by little and then knead it until obtaining a smooth and elastic dough. I usually knead it with the electric mixer for about 10 minutes, this ensures that the dough becomes more elastic and easier to work with.
  2. Now, make the dough into a ball, grease with a tsp of vegetable oil and put it on top of a clean tea towel. Take a bowl big enough to cover the dough with and fill it with boiling water. After a couple of minutes, pour the water out, dry it well and use it to cover the greased ball of dough. This will keep the ball warm and it will help in the rolling process. Be careful not to get burnt when doing this as the bowl will get quite warm! Let the dough rest like this for 30 minutes.
  3. While the dough is resting, start preparing the filling.
  4. Put the sultanas/raisins in a little bit of hot water to soften them. Melt the butter over low heat, add the breadcrumbs and roast them for a few minutes, until all the butter has been absorbed and the breadcrumbs have turned a golden brown.
  5. Put the sliced apples in a bowl. Add half the sugar, the 2 tbsp of rum and the juice of the lemon. Mix well and set aside.
  6. Now it is time to roll the dough!
  7. Put some flour on the teatowel and start pulling it with your hands. Make sure you shape it into a rectangle (the length has to be twice the width – 1). Now put some flour on your fists and place them between the dough and the tea towel (2). Slowly pull the dough from the center to the borders and do this until all the dough is as thin as paper (3). Make sure to do this slowly or your dough will tear! Tradition says that if you put a newspaper below the rolled dough, you should be able to read it through it… it has to be almost transparent!
  8. Now you can put your filling. Start with the roasted breadcrumbs (4), then the apples (discard the liquid!), the remaining sugar, apricot jam, cinnamon, grated lemon zest, pine nuts and the drained sultanas/raisins (5).
  9. Cut out the borders (which will always be thicker) and fold the edges on top of the filling, so that it does not come out. Then, gently lift the edge of the tea towel and roll the strudel with it without touching it with your hands. You have to roll it around the longer side, so it will be longer and thinner (and not the other way around!). Lift it using the edges of the tea towel and gently push it onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. If it is too long, gently shape it into a semi circle. Brush it with some melted butter (6).
  10. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C – 355°F for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on the thickness of the apples inside. The crust has to be golden brown.
  11. When ready, dust it with a generous amount of icing sugar. It is best eaten lukewarm and can be served with some vanilla ice cream on the side (though this is not the traditional way!).

Recipe Notes

The above recipe, is made with “strudel dough”, which is probably what characterises the traditional strudel. When I am pressed with time though, I use puff pastry. The result is a non traditional strudel, with a thicker and flakier crust, which is still pretty delicious! And much easier to work with.