I made Apfelstrudel following Granny’s recipe.
Dough:
- 300 g pastry flour
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil + a bit for greasing
- 1 tsp salt
- 175 ml warm water + more water for boiling
Boil some water in a pot. Mix the ingredients together, adding only enough water so that you get a soft, but not batter-like, dough. Knead well until you can form a soft, elastic, smooth ball. Grease with a little more oil. Put the dough on a plate that fits under the pot: Pour the water out of the pot, maybe make some tea. Put the pot (upside down) onto the plate, so that it keeps your dough warm. Let rest for 30-45 mins.
Filling
- 1,5 kg apples
- juice from 1 small lemon
- optional: 75 g raisins according to taste
- optional: 75g chopped or ground almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, … To taste
- 80 g sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 50 g + 25 g butter
Soak raisins in rum, water or juice. Melt butter. Core and peel apples, cut them in quarters to eighths, depending on the apples’ size, then slice the pieces crosswise in smaller, flat pieces. Sprinkle lemon juice over the apple slices to prevent them from browning (and also adding a bit of sourness). Butter a 30x20 cm (12 x 8 inch?), deep mild. When the dough is rested, take a kitchen towel, sprinkle flour onto it to make it non-stick. Roll the dough out onto the towel, then widen the dough further with your hands. It should be thin enough, to see through. It takes a lot of practice to get there, I have yet to master that skill… Spread 50g of butter over the dough, add apples, raisins, and nuts, leaving about ½ inch on every side plus about 3 inches on one side. Roll the dough up: start by folding over the ½inch wide sides onto the apple covered dough. Then start rolling at the side opposite the 3 inch wide side. The towel under the dough is pretty helpful here. Put the Strudel into the buttered mold, ideally with the end of the dough on the bottom. Grease the strudel with the remaining 25g of butter. Let it bake at 180°C/ 350 °F for about 1-1½ hours, until golden brown and crispy. For more crisp and colour, spread more butter onto the strudel during baking time. Eat with vanilla sauce, ice cream, whipped cream, apple sauce, some milk on the side or plain. I sent Granny some pictures and she thinks, i made an okay Strudel but way too thick. Also I tried to add more pictures but I couldn’t Find out how 😅
Ngl but this picture looks like there is no dough on top. Sure it tastes amazing bit it does not look very appetising.
That’s okay, de gustibus non est disputandum. There is dough on top and there is a lot of vanilla sauce and extra raisins.
Tell your granny c/52weeksofbaking says “Hi!” I like the idea of having dough warm under the empty pot, I could try that with bread dough. Why do this in this recipe,though? There’s no leavening in the strudel, so no need to warm it to help it rise. Could you ask her? Cheers!
Granny says “hi”. She told me, working the dough is easier if it’s warm, especially stretching the dough. She says the risk of tearing it is higher if it’s too cold. Leaving the dough (coated) should work but she said to not put it in the fridge.
Thank you for the reply! I will take this to heart.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Always glad to see new posters in the community! Strudel is something that we always hear about stateside, but never see much of, despite large communities of Germans across the Midwest. Bratwurst, hamburgers, and spätzel are all ubiquitous at german restaurants and heritage festivals, but i feel as though i never see strudel.
