Yesterday, having an enormous quantity of cooking apples on hand, I decided to challenge myself with an Apfelstrudel . The thing is, it really wasn't that much of a challenge. I have rarely heard of people making strudel dough from scratch, instead opting for store bought filo pastry. But now that I have made strudel dough from scratch, I wonder why on earth I hadn't made it before. Admittedly it must be rolled out very thinly- thin enough for you to see your hand through the sheet of pastry- but it isn't hard. I found the recipe from
aboutaustria.org. I wouldn't pay attention to the time and temp indication, if I were you, because mine was a little more browned than I would have liked and I had in fact set the oven at a significantly lower temperature than indicated and left it in for only about 40 mins. Here is the recipe and some photos. Do check out the site though; they have some other great austrian fare there too.
Apfelstrudel
IngredientsPastry
300 grams bread flour
pinch of salt
30 ml vegetable oil
0,2 l water (lukewarm)
Filling
2 kg apples (Golden Delicious)
150 grams granulated sugar
30ml dark rum
150 grams raisins
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 lemons (juice and peel)
Buttered breadcrumbs
300 grams butter (unsalted)
300 grams bread crumbs
RecipeKnead flour, salt, oil and water into a medium-firm dough. Divide into 3 small round loaves, brush each loaf with melted butter and let sit for 1 hour. Peel, core and slice apples. Mix in granulated sugar, raisins, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, rum, cinnamon.Roast butter and bread crumbs.Roll the dough loaves with a rolling pin, then stretch rolled dough on a strudel sheet with the backs of your hands. Coat 2/3 of dough sheet with buttered breadcrumbs, spread apple filling over remaining 1/3 of dough. Tear off edges, shape strudel into roll by lifting strudel sheet. Place strudel on a buttered baking sheet and brush with melted butter.Bake strudel for 60 to 90 minutes in a 400 degrees F to 425 degrees F (200 to 220 degrees Celsius) oven.
