Austrian cuisine

Apfelstrudel

Name: Apfelstrudel
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 105 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Austrian cuisine
Ingredients: 250 g Strong flour; 130 ml Warm water; 3 tbsp Neutral oil; 1 kg Tart apples; 100 g Sugar; 2 tsp Cinnamon; 80 g Raisins; 80 g Breadcrumbs; 120 g Butter; 1 Lemon

Apples with cinnamon and raisins in a dough stretched until it is transparent. It is pulled by hand, never rolled.

Prep: 60 min
Cook: 45 min
Total: 105 min
Difficulty: Takes practice

Servings

Units

Ingredients

Strong flour250 g
Warm water130 ml
Neutral oil3 tbsp
Tart apples — thinly sliced1 kg
Sugar100 g
Cinnamon2 tsp
Raisins80 g
Breadcrumbs80 g
Butter120 g
Lemon — juice and zest1

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1
Knead a dough from the flour, warm water, oil and a pinch of salt for ten minutes, until smooth and very elastic. Oil it, cover it and leave it an hour.
70 min
2
Fry the breadcrumbs in half the butter until golden. Mix the apples with the sugar, cinnamon, raisins, lemon juice and zest.
10 min
3
Spread a cloth on the table, dust it with flour and stretch the dough with the backs of your hands from the centre outwards, until it is transparent. Trim the thick edges.
15 min
4
Brush the dough with melted butter, scatter the crumbs over a third of it and pile the apples onto them, leaving a border.
5 min
5
Roll it up by lifting the cloth — by hand the dough tears. Tuck the ends under, move it seam down onto a tray and brush with butter.
5 min
6
Bake at 190 °C for forty minutes, brushing with butter twice along the way. Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar.
45 min

About the dish

Strudel dough is stretched until a newspaper can be read through it — not a turn of phrase but the classical test from Austrian cookbooks. High gluten and a long rest are what make it possible.

Breadcrumbs fried in butter go underneath the apples. They absorb the juice that would otherwise soak the base and leave the strudel raw.

Use tart firm apples. Sweet varieties collapse into purée, and the acidity is needed to balance the sugar and the butter.

Worth knowing

— Dough that has not rested will not stretch. An hour is the minimum; in that time the gluten relaxes and the sheet pulls four times as far.
— Shop-bought filo works and saves an hour, but the texture comes out layered rather than thin and crisp — a different pudding, good as it is.
— Do not let the apples sit in sugar: they release juice and the strudel goes soggy. Mix them just before assembling.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories: 420 kcal
Protein: 5 g
Fat: 16 g
Carbs: 66 g

Useful for this recipe

Oven Temperature Converter