Flaky pastry, filled with ooey-gooey apple filling, and dusted with powdered sugar.
Sorry for the long hiatus. I was studying … I know…I think it’s lame too! Sophomore year and Intermediate Accounting have been busy kicking my butt, and I’ve been busy eating 4 packages of Oreos in a month. But I wanted to get a great Thanksgiving recipe up on my blog so homework is on hold at the moment! While this recipe is in no way American, it sort of reminds me of Apple pie so just go with it.
You made a huge Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, cranberry sauce, green beans, corn…the whole shebang. And then you have 4 pies because it’s just too hard to choose just one or two. So much food and so many leftovers. Why don’t you spread out the yumminess across a few meals? I like to start Thanksgiving at breakfast with pumpkin bread (and skip pumpkin pie later), an Apple Cranberry Dutch Baby (and skip the apple pie later), or this delightfully awesome strudel (and skip the apple pie). Who says you can’t have dessert at breakfast?
But seriously this strudel is so flaky that you won’t miss your apple pie. And while strudel can be intimidating, this recipe is very manageable! We went to Eastern Europe this past summer which my dad calls the strudel tour because we seemed to eat nothing but strudel, strudel, and more strudel. In Budapest, there is a restaurant called the Strudl House where they roll out and fill the strudel in front of you. We got a piece straight out of the oven… so incredibly yummy.
Making the dough is pretty straight-forward, you don’t even need yeast! However, be warned that you want to use as little flour as possible! Using too much flour will dry out your dough and it will lose a lot of its elasticity. Thus, it won’t stretch when you go to roll it out and will form holes and cracks. Once the dough has rested, roll it out (picture 2). Here’s the slightly scary part… you are going to pick up the dough. Hold the dough with the back of your hands and just move around the edges, letting it’s own weight stretch it out. The dough is elastic enough that it won’t rip easily but make sure you don’t have any jewelry on, or you will puncture the dough. It will start getting more difficult to handle because of its size. Put it down on a floured dish towel. Use any towel that is smooth…so not a towel with a waffle weave.
Continue to stretch the dough. It’s stronger than you think, so don’t be afraid to keep stretching it. When we watched the chef at Strudel House, it looked like he was making up a bed. That’s how elastic it is, so don’t baby it too much. The mark of a good strudel dough is that you could put a newspaper under your sheet of dough and read it. You can see in picture 4 below that the stripes on the towel are very visible through the dough. You want it thin, thin, thin…unlike my waistline after I inhale the entire strudel!
Now pile on the apples in a line (picture 1). Fold in the sides so the apples don’t fall out… that would be a tragedy (picture 2). Now lift up the towel at the apple end and by lifting and scrunching the towel up, you will start to roll up the strudel (picture 3). While our dough was stronger than you thought when rolling and stretching it out, the juices and weight of the apples have weakened it. So if you try to roll it with your hands, you’ll probably rip the dough. That’s why we use a towel. Also it is easier to roll up off the towel than if it was sticking to the counter.
Pop it in the oven.
Drool while it’s in the oven.
Pull this golden perfection out of the oven…I’m still drooling.
Dust with powdered sugar…because why wouldn’t you?
Cut into slices and dig in…I won’t judge if you skip the cutting slices step!
…and voilà!
Happy Thanksgiving y’all!
- ⅓ cup lukewarm water
- 4 teaspoon vegetable oil, divided
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup +2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour, spoon and level method
- 3 Granny Smith Apples (1.3 lbs), cut up into small chunks
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons melted butter
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- Mix the water, 3½ teaspoons of oil, lemon juice, and salt in a bowl.
- Stir in about half of the flour or until it comes together enough that you can work it with your hands.
- Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Gradually use the remaining flour if the dough is sticking to your work surface but try not to add more than is necessary to keep it from sticking. The goal is to use as little flour as possible, so you may not use all of the flour. The dough should feel like fresh sticky putty.
- Put the dough ball in a bowl and roll it around in the remaining ½ teaspoon of oil.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 1 hour at room temperature.
- Mix the cut up apples, sugar, and cinnamon together and let it sit for at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Lightly flour a clean towel that is at least 18 x 24 in.*
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 13 x 15 in. rectangle.
- Now pick up the dough. With the back of your hands, move around the edges of the dough letting the weight of the dough stretch it out.
- Once it is getting hard to handle put it down on the lightly floured towel.
- Continue stretching the dough into a rectangle. You want the dough to be so thin that you could read something under it. The shorter end of the dough should be the length of your baking sheet.
- Once the dough is thin enough, pull the apple filling out of the juices using a slotted spoon. Put the apples in a strip along the shorter end of the dough. Brush the dough not covered in apples with the melted butter but don't use all of the melted butter.
- Fold the side ends of the dough to cover just about an inch or two of the apple filling.
- Using the towel and starting at the apple side, gently roll the dough into a log shape.
- Gently roll the strudel onto a piece of parchment paper with the seam side down. Using the parchment paper lift the strudel onto a baking sheet.
- Brush the entire log with the rest of the butter.
- Bake the strudel for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
- Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
- Dust with powdered sugar.
- Cut into slices.
- Voilà!
Adapted from Little Vienna
Strudeling across Europe sounds fun!