Strudel di mele (Apple Strudel)

Frank23 November 2015Alto Adige, dessert/dolci, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Venice and the Veneto32 Comments

I first learned to make Strudel when I was living in Vienna, its birthplace. Strudel is also made in Italy, in particular in the Northeastern regions that were under Austrian rule, and most especially the region known to Italians as Alto Adige and to German speakers as Südtirol, which was part of Austria until the end of the First World War. In Italy, Strudel is traditionally made with a soft, pliable dough made with flour, enriched with egg and melted butter or oil and rolled out very, very thin, even if today many people use store-bought pastry dough or pasta frolla. It is also wonderful made with phyllo dough.

Although it looks very fancy, Strudel is actually quite easy to make—especially if you use store-bought dough. Rolling the dough up into a loaf can be a little tricky the first time you try, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be whipping up this dish in little over an hour, and that’s counting the 30-45 minute baking time. For those celebrating Thanksgiving this week, it makes for a nice change from the usual pumpkin pie (which, I have to admit, I never liked…)

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

For the dough:

150g (5oz) flour
A pinch of salt
2-3 Tbs granulated sugar
1 egg
2-3 Tbs olive or vegetable oil (or melted butter)
Water, q.b.

For the filling:

750g (1-1/2) apples
75g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
A handful of raisins, pre-soaked in rum
A handful of pinoli (pine nuts), or slivered almonds
1-2 Tbs cinnamon
75g (2-1/2 oz) breadcrumbs
A good nob of butter

For baking and finishing:

More flour
Melted butter
Powdered sugar

Directions

If using homemade dough, prepare it by mixing the dry ingredients, then the egg and oil, then finally just enough water to form a ball. Knead briefly until the dough is soft and elastic. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, then in a towel, and let rest for a good 3o minutes or more. (In some old recipes, you are told to let the dough rest in a warm saucepan, to soften it even more, in which case I’d skip the plastic wrap.) See notes below for using store-bought dough.

While the dough is resting, peel, core and slice the apples as thinly as you can. Add the sugar, cinnamon and raisins, which you will have drained and squeezed dry, and the pine nuts or almonds.

Mix things all together, moistening the mixture if you like with a bit of the rum in which the raisins have been soaked. Set aside.

Sauté the breadcrumbs in the melted butter over very gentle heat until they are lightly browned. Be careful not to over-brown the crumbs.

When the dough has rested at least a good 30 minutes, mold it into a flat, rectangular shape and place it on a well-floured cotton (not terry cloth!) dish towel or, even better, a linen baker’s couche.

Roll the dough out as thinly as you can manage into a large, rectangular shape. Older recipes tell you to stretch it further with your hands, as you might a thin-crust pizza—supposedly until you can read a newspaper through it, but I have to assume that’s hyperbole…

Brush the dough liberally with melted butter, leaving the edges dry.

Spread the sautéed breadcrumbs in a thin layer all over the dough, leaving the edges clear.

Pour the filling over the breadcrumbs and spread it out even, again avoiding the edges.

With the aid of the towel, roll up the dough into a large lozenge-shaped “loaf”.

Once the strudel is fully rolled up, tuck the edges under

and, very gingerly, transfer this loaf onto a baking pan or sheet. Brush the loaf liberally with melted butter. If you prefer a ‘shiny’ surface to your strudel, you can brush the surface with milk or egg wash instead.

Bake the strudel in a hot (200c/400F) oven for a good 30-45 minutes, until golden brown all over. (I find it helps browning if you brush it once or twice with more melted butter while it bakes.)

Let the strudel cool entirely. Top with powdered sugar before serving in thick slices, perhaps with a nice side of whipped cream or ice cream if you’re feeling decadent.

Notes on Strudel di mele

If using store-bought pastry dough, just lay it out flat on the sheet it is usually attached to and lay the breadcrumbs and filling out on top, then roll it up as usual. You won’t need to brush it with butter, as pastry dough already has a high fat content, [although brushing it with milk will help it brown]. I’ve seen recipes for Strudel with puff pastry, too. And if you want to use phyllo dough, which makes a particularly delightful Strudel, lay out one sheet, brush it with melted butter, then repeat until you have 4 or 5 layers of dough, before laying on the breadcrumbs and apple filling. Phyllo, I have to guess, may have actually been the original Strudel dough, since sources say that Strudel was derived from the baklava made by the Ottoman Turks.

The breadcrumbs, by the way, don’t turn up in all recipes, but the thin layer of breadcrumbs is useful to soak up the juices that can extrude from the apples as they cook. This way, the crust doesn’t get soggy.

The classic apple for making strudel—the Italian variety at least—are Renettes, but I’ve seen recipes calling for all sorts of apples, from Granny Smiths to Golden Delicious. For this strudel, I used Honeycrisps, and it was delicious. If using a rather tart apple like the Granny Smith, I’d increase the amount of sugar in the filling. In fact, you can vary the amount of sugar anyway, in the filling or the dough, to suit your personal tastes. The measurements given here produce a strudel that is only slightly sweet, which is the way I like it.

The word “Strudel” comes from Middle German for whirlpool, since the roll was traditionally formed into a spiral shape. Although Apple Strudel is by far the most famous, there are all manner of Strudel, both sweet and savory. And once you’ve got the hang of the basic recipe, you can make any of them. But that’s a story for another post.

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