the best apple strudel i ever had, is the apple strudel of the man´s mom. and as she is viennese, i think her apple strudel could not be more original. i tried to reproduce everything exactly as i remember. but the greatest challenge of such traditional family recipes is that they never have been written down, everything is a bit vague and estimated.

this recipe is as simple as it is good. basic ingredients, and if you don’t make the strudel pastry yourself, nothing can go wrong. i have no idea if it is really that difficult to make a fresh strudel pastry. somewhen i will try it myself. but until that time i am fine with the ready made pastry. you can use the classic strudel pastry as well as the middle east yufka pastry. at the end, it is the same. maybe a kind of culinary exchange between the habsburgian and the ottoman empire besides all the hostility in the empires history.

and also the apples are special. these are not the apples of our prince albrecht, which are reserved for other very delicious ideas i already have. these apples are from the trees in front of my office. and after admiring them the whole summer, the fabulous bakery girl of torte und worte and me decided to get active. so we shaked the tree until we both had enough apples for our baking projects and a little bit more.

this austrian classic is one of the best thing that can happen to your apples. crunchy pastry, smooth warm apples and raisins mixture with a pinch of cinnamon, accompanied with some whipped cream … i can´t imagine anything that is more comfort food for autumn days than this apple strudel.

so hopefully everybody reading foodiesgarden.net or joining the seelenfutter (which means comfort food) blog event will agree and enjoy.

6 normal size apples (or 12 small apples)
juice of one lemon
100 g raisins
100 g sugar
a pinch of cinnamon
2-4 sheets of strudel or yufka pastry
50-100 g melted butter
icing sugar
whipped cream

preheat the oven to 180°C.

peel the apples and roughly grate. combine immediately with the lemon juice not to let the apples turn brown. combine the grated apples with the raisins, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.

melt the butter. put the first sheet of pastry on a kitchen towel, which you will need to roll the strudel later on. dab the pastry sheet with some melted butter and lay the next pastry sheet on top, melted butter, pastry sheet, melted butter … repeat until all pastry is used up.

pour the apple mixture over one third of the pastry but leave enough space on the length side to roll and also on the two shorter sides. you have to fold over the short sides , so that the strudel will be completely closed. start by folding over the two short sides and then, with the help of the kitchen towel, roll the strudel beginning from side filled with the apples. dab the last part of the strudel pastry with some melted butter so that it sticks on the strudel.

dab the whole strudel with the remaining butter. transfer the strudel to a baking paper lined baking tray and bake for about 45 minutes.

leave the apple strudel to cool a bit. top with sieved icing sugar and serve still warm with some lightly sweetened whipped cream.

enjoy and be happy!

********************

6 normal große äpfel (oder 12 kleine)
saft einer zitrone
100 g rosinen
100g zucker
eine prise zimt
2-4 blätter strudel- oder yufka teig
50-100g geschmolzene butter
puderzucker
schlagsahne/obers

den ofen auf 180° vorheizen.

die äpfel schälen und grob reiben. sofort mit dem zitronensaft mischen, damit sich die äpfel nicht braun verfärben. in einer großen schüssel den geriebenen apfel mit zimt, zucker und rosinen mischen.

butter schmelzen. das erste teigblatt auf ein küchentuch auslegen. das küchentuch braucht man um den strudel später aufzurollen. das teigblatt mit geschmolzener butter bestreichen und das nächste teigblatt darauf legen, geschmolzene butter, nächstes teigblatt, geschmolzene butter, nächstes teigblatt, geschmolzene butter … bis alle teigblätter aufgebraucht sind.

auf ein drittel des teigblattes die apfelmischung geben, auf der längsseite aber etwas platz zum aufrollen lassen und ebenso rechts und links an den kurzen seiten, damit man den strudel komplett verschließen kann. zuerst die beiden seiten umklappen und dann mit hilfe des küchenhandtuchs mit der gefüllten seite beginnend den teig aufrollen. den letzten teil des strudelblattes mit geschmolzener butter bestreichen, damit es am strudel haftet.

den ganzen strudel mit geschmolzener bestreichen, auf ein mit backpapier ausgelegtes backblech legen (mit hilfe des geschirrtuches) und etwa 45 minuten backen bis sich der strudel schön golden färbt.

den apfelstrudel etwas auskühlen lassen. dann mit puderzucker bestreuen und noch warm mit leicht gesüßtes schlagsahne/obers servieren.

lasst es euch schmecken und gut gehen!