Apple Strudel
If you want to try your hand at strudel dough then lets have some fun. You will need a little time and a few rips in the dough will not affect the flavour ! If however you want to make a strudel but don’t have the time or inclination for strudel dough then bought filo will work fine.
Serves 8
Ingredients
For the strudel dough
200g Strong white bread flour
½ tsp salt
1 egg
20g melted butter (cooled)
100ml water
For the filling
100g mixed dried fruit and peel
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp Amaretto
40g Caster sugar
400g Grated apple (I used baking apples) plus the juice from the lemon
1 tsp ground cinnamon
80g Ground almonds
80g White breadcrumbs fried in 20g butter
60g melted butter (half for the pre-rolled strudel and half for brushing before baking)
Icing sugar for dusting
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Preparation
Start by placing the fruit, amaretto and lemon zest in a small bowl, cover and leave to soak overnight preferable but an hour is fine.
To make the pastry simply place the flour, salt, egg, melted butter and water in a medium sized bowl and mix well with a fork. The dough will be shaggy and sticky.
Turn out onto a worktop and start to knead. The dough will be difficult to manage at first but it needs to be very stretchy and not dry. After 10 minutes of pulling and stretching the dough will start to leave you alone !
Eventually you will be able to knead the dough into a ball – use a little flour if necessary.
Leave the dough on the worktop and cover with the upturned mixing bowl and leave to rest for about 20 minutes.
In the meantime grate the apples (I don’t bother peeling mine) into a bowl containing the lemon juice then add the fruit, sugar and cinnamon. In a small frying pan melt 20g butter and fry the breadcrumbs until crispy and golden then set aside.
When ready to work with the dough – I find it easier to use a checked tablecloth and I measure the size to which the dough has to be stretched. It seems impossible at first.
Start with a rolling pin and a dusting of flour on the cloth and gently roll the dough. After that you need to use the hands !
Use the back of the hands (take off rings and watch !) and slide under the dough and push gently from the centre out to the sides. Once you have mastered the dough you will start to enjoy it.
The dough needs to be measuring 56cm x 40cm. Trim off the ragged edges with a pizza cutter so that you have a perfect rectangle. Brush over with melted butter then scatter over the cooled fried breadcrumbs followed by the apple and fruit mix then top off with the ground almonds.
Using the cloth as an aid start to roll the strudel then once you have rolled it into a long sausage tuck in the ends and transfer to a greased baking sheet. The strudel will be too long for the sheet so form it into a crescent.
Brush with melted butter then bake at 200 degrees c for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm with cream.
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