Apfelstrudel! Although served in a lot of the central countries throughout Europe, it originated in Austria and became popular way back in the 18th century.
I remember my mum making apple strudel and me helping to stretch the dough to the size of our table. If you can do that, well done, I am not sure it is possible without some practice. Traditional strudel pastry differs from puff pastry in that it is very elastic. It is made from flour with a high gluten content, water, oil and salt, with no sugar added. The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly with the help of a clean linen tea towel or kitchen paper.
Apparently you should be able to read the newspaper through the pastry once it is ready! Whatever size you end up with, be gentle and patient with it. Size doesn’t always matter but in this case it does! The thinner the pastry, the better the strudel.
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Need
-
The Pastry
- 80 Grams lukewarm water
- 15 Grams Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) plus some more BUY
- 1 Teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- Pinches pink salt flakes BUY
- 145 Grams bakers or strong flour
-
The Filling
- 40 Grams unsalted butter plus some more for brushing BUY
- 80 Grams dry breadcrumbs
- 60 Grams raw caster sugar BUY
- 1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 800 Grams pink lady apples, peeled and sliced
- Juice ½ lemon
- 50 Grams raisins, soaked in rum overnight
- Icing sugar for dusting
Do
- 1
Place all dough ingredients into Thermomix bowl and beat 1 min/speed 7.
- 2
Knead 3 min/Interval/dough setting. Turn the dough out, roll into a ball and place into a glass bowl you have brushed with EVOO. Brush the dough with EVOO as well. Cover and rest for at least an hour.
- 3
Start prepping the filling. Brown the butter in a frying pan on quite a high heat until nut brown and very fragrant. Be careful not to burn it. Reduce the heat to a medium high heat and fry the breadcrumbs, toasting them until they have absorbed all the butter and are crispy and golden and very fragrant. Cool completely before mixing with the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
- 4
Toss the prepared apples in the lemon juice and add the raisins. If there is soaking rum left from the raisins, discard (or drink)!
- 5
Preheat the oven to 190°C and place the shelf in the middle of the oven.
- 6
Roll the dough with a rolling pin on a pristine clean and lightly floured surface. Flour the surface as needed while rolling.
- 7
When the dough is as big as you can get it (rectangle approx 25cm x 35cm) place a floured table cloth onto the surface you are using, transfer the dough and start the stretching. Make sure you have no sharp jewellery on.
- 8
Stretch and pull the dough until you can read through it. (The true test!!) You should not tear the dough, but repair if needed.
- 9
You want a very large rectangle. Bigger is better.
- 10
Brush the dough with the extra butter (melted).
- 11
Spread the bread crumb mix across half of the stretched dough and top with the apples, making sure there is no liquid being spilled onto the dough. Fold in the edges and end of the dough over the apples like the edges of an envelope.
- 12
Starting at the apple end, roll the dough carefully, enclosing the filling.
- 13
Transfer onto the baking sheet and brush all of the pastry with plenty of melted butter.
- 14
Bake 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the apples well cooked. Use a skewer if necessary to determine this.
- 15
Dredge with plenty of icing sugar and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
