Recipe for apple strudel

Strudel di mele
I’ m no apple strudel expert, but I love apple cakes of all kinds, and this recipe for apple strudel reminds me of a picnic in a field near Merano.

I won’t pretend I’ m an apple strudel expert as some practitioners in Germany, Austria and Northern Italy, but I love apple cakes of all kinds, and this one reminds me of a picnic in a field near San Leonardo in Passiria, north of Merano.

Of course it takes time to roll out and stretch the dough, and it can be rather tricky to handle, but it is rewarding and meditative work, and if you are in a hurry you can always use a frozen pre-fab phyllo (filo) dough instead.

Ingredients
For the dough
240 g (4 dl) all purpose flour
2 tbsp melted butter + some more for brushing
1 egg
A pinch of salt
Oil for brushing

For the filling
1 kilo apples
100 g raisins
1 lemon (juice and peel)
80 g (1 dl) sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp pine nuts
Powdered sugar for  dusting

Preparation
Make a heap of flour with a hole in the middle as for making pasta. Pour melted butter, egg and a pinch of salt in the hole and start mixing. Gradually add up to 1 dl water and continue kneading until the dough feels smooth and elastic. Brush the pastry dough with oil, wrap it in cooking film and leave it to rest while you prepare the filling.
Peel the apples, if you feel like it (I don’t), and slice them thinly. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the apples to prevent them from turning brown. Then toss the sliced apples with sugar, cinnamon, pine nuts and grated lemon zest.
Now it it time to roll out the dough. Some recipes recommend doing this on a clean kitchen towel, but I find it easier to use two sheets of parchment paper. They prevent the dough from sticking to both the table and the rolling pin and allow you to make a nice and thin, oblong sheet of pastry.
Remove the top sheet of baking paper and place the filling lengthwise down the middle of the pastry. Fold the pastry edges up around the filling.
Lift the bottom sheet of parchments paper with the strudel onto an oven plate, brush the pastry with melted butter and bake at 175 C/350 F for about 1 hour.
Leave the apple strudel to cool before dusting with icing sugar.

As alternatives to this recipe for apple strudel you might want to try:

Apple spice cake with aniseed, cardamom and cinnamon

Apple cake with walnuts and amaretti

Buccellato – Sicilian Christmas wreath