Apple Strudel
I first tasted apple strudel on a post college graduation trip to Vienna, where it was among the memorable foods I tasted in the wonderful caf©s and restaurants. It is with the memory of that delightfully flaky, just sweet enough strudel, served on delicate china, in mind that I began working on this week’s recipe.
My original plan was to use classic strudel dough, which I made daily as pastry chef in a short-lived Philadelphia Viennese restaurant. I would place a flour-dusted tablecloth on my large worktable, and begin by rolling out the dough, then placing my hands under the dough and gently stretching it. The saying in Vienna is that you should be able to read the newspaper through a properly thin strudel dough. After a bit of practice, I did manage to get the dough quite thin, although I never checked with a newspaper.
How hard could it be to do the same at home I thought? Or in this case, my partner’s home with a beautiful, large center work island. So, one Saturday afternoon I took my old strudel dough recipe, some fragrant Empire apples, and a large white tablecloth and went to it. I did manage to get the dough quite thin in most places, (see last row of pictures below) and I produced a lovely strudel, with outstanding taste from the orchard-fresh apples.
It was a fun project and rewarding to call up old skills. However, when I started to wrap up the tablecloth and sweep the flour off the floor, I realized not many people are going to do this. I needed another type of pastry to showcase the wonders of apple strudel – and phyllo dough is the way.
Phyllo is delicate and a bit tricky to handle but makes a fine strudel dough, and is significantly less of a project. The tricks to working with phyllo, are; defrost the dough overnight, let sit at room temperature for about two hours prior to beginning, and keep the sheets covered with a damp cloth.
It took a while to get a phyllo version of apple strudel just right, experimenting to achieve the optimal number of phyllo sheets. Also, the bottom of the strudel was over-browning a bit, so I tried double panning (placing an empty baking sheet under the one with the strudel) with very good results. The apple filling remained pretty much the same as my original version.
On the third attempt, I had an apple strudel that I was very happy with. For the first taste test, I placed a slice on nice dessert china, took my fork to the flaky pastry and the fragrant apple filling, and I was transported back to Vienna.
Apple Strudel
| Yield: One 11-inch strudel | of Servings: 6 |
Ingredients:
- 1 package phyllo dough, defrosted overnight
- ¾ cup (3.25 oz / 92 g) dried breadcrumbs
- 2 tbl (1 oz / 28) unsalted butter
- 4 cups baking apple1 slices, from 3 to 4 apples
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbl grated lemon rind
- ½ cup + 1 tbl (4.05 oz / 115 g) sugar2
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup (2.45 oz / 70 g) golden raisins
- 6 tbl (3 oz / 85 g) unsalted butter, melted
- Confectioners’ sugar, as needed
Special equipment needed:
- 17 ½ “ by 12 ½ “ half sheet pan. (Two if you have them)3
- One large cookie sheet
- Silpat or parchment paper
- Fine mesh strainer
- Two slightly damp kitchen towels
- 1 soft pastry brush
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Remove phyllo from the refrigerator 2 hours before starting.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F
- Lightly brown the breadcrumbs by melting the butter over a low flame in a small saut© pan, then add the breadcrumbs. Continuing over a low flame, stir with a heat-proof spoon and cook for about four minutes, just until a pale, light brown. Remove breadcrumbs from the pan to plate or heat-proof container and let cool.
- Peel, core, quarter, and slice the apples into â…“-inch slices.
- Place in medium sized mixing bowl, add lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, cinnamon and mix well. Add the golden raisins and stir to combine. Set aside and clean work area. You will need a good-sized work area for the next steps.
- Remove the phyllo from the wrapper, gently unfold and place on the counter or large cookie sheet. Immediately cover with a damp kitchen towel. It’s important to keep the phyllo covered while you work or the sheets will dry out. Make sure the melted butter and pastry brush are all set.
- Place second kitchen towel on the counter. Lay one piece of phyllo dough on the towel.
- Brush lightly with melted butter and place another sheet over it. Brush the second sheet with melted butter, place a third sheet over it, and continue until there are six sheets of phyllo, each brushed with butter.
- Cover with the seventh phyllo sheet, but do not brush with butter.
- Spread the bread crumbs in a thin layer over the top sheet of phyllo.
- Pour off the liquid that accumulated on the bottom of the bowl with the apples.
- Spread the apples in a four-inch long band along the bottom edge of the phyllo, leaving an inch on the bottom and the sides.
- Using the kitchen towel, roll up the strudel into a tight roll, ending with the seam side down.
- Using two long spatulas, lift the strudel onto the half-sheet pan. Brush the top with melted butter.
- Using a sharp serrated knife, score the top of the strudel into six sections but cutting through a few layers of phyllo.4
- If you have a second half sheet, place the sheet pan5 with the strudel on it and bake until golden brown and the apples are soft, 45 to 55 minutes.
- Remove pan from oven. When lukewarm, using two spatulas remove to long cutting board slice through the scored markings. Dust generously with confectioners’ sugar, and serve warm.
Notes:
1 My favorite baking apples are Empire, Northern Spy, or Cortland. 2 Different apples will have varying degrees of sweetness. It is best to taste for desired sweetness, adding more sugar if necessary. 3 Double panning prevents the bottom of the strudel from over baking. 4 Scoring the strudel makes it much easier to slice the finished strudel, and prevents the baked outer phyllo from crumbling.
Baking suggestion:
- Each box of phyllo dough contains around 16 sheets. You can double the recipe to make a second strudel and freeze it unbaked. You will have a beautiful dessert ready in the freezer. Bake directly from the freezer.
- For any adventurous home bakers who want to experience the thrill of the stretched dough, I will post the recipe for strudel dough in the near future.
