There a few Austrian pastries more popular and well-known all over the world than Viennese Apfelstrudel (apple strudel). Few people know that Apfelstrudel is actually related to the Turkish Baklava and found its way to Austria during the many centuries of the Austrian Habsburg Empire’s expansion. The oldest Strudel recipe can be tracked back as far as 1696.
Apfelstrudel is very easy to make and apart from tasting delicious,it makes the whole house smell of the gorgeous aroma of baked apples and cinnamon. You can serve it fresh from the oven,still warm either plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It also tastes great cold and it is traditionally often eaten with whipped cream or vanilla sauce.
My Mum’s Apfelstrudel
Amount: 1 large or 2 smallish loaves.
Cooking Time: 30-45 min to prepare,30 min to bake
Ingredients:
- 1 kg apples,sourish,peeled and pitted
- 100 g caster sugar
- 100 g breadcrumbs
- 80 g butter (+100 g melted butter to coat)
- 50 g ground nuts (you can use finely ground ones or bigger pieces,both have their merits)
- 1 small spoon cinnamon
- 50 g raisins (can be omitted if you don’t like raisins)
- 1-2 big spoons of rum
- ready-made strudel dough (if you can’t get strudel dough,puff pastry is a good alternative). Of course you can also prepare you own strudel dough,here is a recipe for example.
- powered sugar to sprinkle
1. Peel,core and thinly slice apples,add half of the sugar,cinnamon,raisins and rum and mix thoroughly.
Apfelstrudel
2. Heat butter in a pan until foaming,add breadcrumbs,half of the sugar as well as the nuts. Roast until gold-brown (be careful not to burn them,it happens very suddenly). Leave to cool
Apfelstrudel
3. Spread 1 dough sheet on moist clean towel and brush with melted butter. Then add second dough sheet on top
4. In the nearest third,distribute apple mixture,then apply breadcrumb mixture on top.
Apfelstrudel
5. Use the towel to roll pastry into a fat sausage
6. Slide onto flat baking sheet and brush the top with some more of the melted butter
7. Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees
8. Sprinkle with powdered sugar
9. Serve warm or cold,either by itself or with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
Apfelstrudel
Brilliant! I adored all the apfelstrudel we tried in Vienna! I’ll definitely try this when winter comes around!
I love apple strudels and havent had one in a loooong time. Thanks for the recipe! It looks really yummy!
This is my ultimate comfort food. Cannot wait to get stuck into making some. Thank you for the beautiful reminder…