Homemade Apple Strudel with Stretched Dough – Step-by-Step Recipe

Name: Homemade Apple Strudel with Stretched Dough – Step-by-Step Recipe
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Premium wheat flour as needed; Large sweet-tart apples 5; Sugar 1 cup; Brown sugar 2 tbsp; Powdered sugar 2-3 tbsp; Butter 100 g; Olive oil 50 ml; Egg 2; Seedless raisins 100 g; Rum or brandy 0.5 cup; Breadcrumbs 3-4 tbsp; Ground ginger, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, salt, cinnamon sticks, cloves to taste

Apple strudel takes me back to childhood: my grandmother made it now and then, following a recipe fairly close to the “classic” one. More often, though, it was an apple pie shaped like a roll, and not always made with stretched dough. In the villages people rarely cooked “by the book”, as they say – among all the countless recipes they preferred simple, straightforward ones. I can still picture my grandmother's roll with Antonovka or Renet Simirenko apples.

The word strudel (German Strudel) literally means whirlpool, eddy, swirl. It is a pastry that comes from the Austrian lands, and the first printed recipes date back to the end of the 17th century. At first glance it is a rather demanding dish: “stretched” dough with various fillings. There is sweet apple strudel, cherry, strawberry, raspberry and so on – a real treat, though much more work than little hand pies. I once read that homemade apple strudel made the traditional way is quite rare these days – recipes vary a great deal.

The dessert is usually served hot. Interestingly, strudel often comes with a light vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. That said, most people prefer it with coffee or tea. I'm cautious with strong black coffee – except perhaps with tiramisu – and I like strudel best with ginger tea or coffee with cream.

Pastries that go by the general name of strudel are very widespread in countries where people mainly speak German. This apparently has historical roots. Still, apple, cherry or pear strudel is also part of Hungarian and Czech cuisine and other Slavic cuisines. Jewish cuisine has always been famous for its strudel, too. In Isaac Babel's story “In the Basement”, there is a strudel with jam and a poppy seed cake that the hero's aunt baked especially for a visit from his wealthy friend.

Apple strudel made with puff pastry is a kind of apple pie. Apples are the most accessible fruit, so apple pie, apple strudel and apple charlotte are staple desserts in the cuisines of many countries. As I remember, in the USA every eatery has apple pie on the menu, and it is always fresh and delicious.

Apple strudel is made with “stretched” dough. It is a yeast-free dough, very thin – almost as transparent as thick plastic film. This type of dough is very popular in the Balkans and the East: it is used for the famous Bulgarian banitsa, Eastern baklava and burek. Similar doughs are called yufka, tocheni kori, kore, filo. The dough is very elastic and stretches beautifully, although its ingredients can vary quite a lot.

* The recipe was written down while making the strudel. A huge thank-you to my beloved daughter Yulia!

Ingredients

1 strudel

Premium wheat flour as needed
Large sweet-tart apples 5
Sugar 1 cup
Brown sugar 2 tbsp
Powdered sugar 2-3 tbsp
Butter 100 g
Olive oil 50 ml
Egg 2
Seedless raisins 100 g
Rum or brandy 0.5 cup
Breadcrumbs 3-4 tbsp
Ground ginger, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, salt, cinnamon sticks, cloves to taste

Step-by-step recipe

At first glance the process seems very laborious and tiring. Looking back, my fears and prejudices make me laugh. Fear has big eyes, as the saying goes – and that's exactly the phobia of making such a wonderful pastry.
For the filling, choose large sweet-tart apples. The ideal choice is Renet Simirenko, Granny Smith or similar green apples. These apples hold their shape well when sliced and cooked and don't release too much juice. The day before, soak 100 g of seedless raisins. We use dark rum or brandy. Mix half a cup of rum or brandy with half a cup of water, pour the mixture over the rinsed raisins and add 1-2 cinnamon sticks and 3-4 cloves. Leave for a few hours.
We start the strudel by preparing the filling. Put 50 g of butter in a frying pan. Add 1 cup of sugar, brown sugar if you have it, and the spices. The spice mix can vary. We added 1 tsp each of ground ginger and cinnamon, 0.5 tsp of nutmeg and a little vanilla to taste.
Once the butter has almost melted, add the raisins soaked the day before along with their soaking liquid, so the spices don't overheat. Discard the cinnamon sticks and cloves.
Stir everything and keep heating over medium heat, uncovered, until the sugar begins to caramelize. The sugar will start to foam a little and darken.
Immediately add the apples, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces or slices. Don't cut them too small, or you risk ending up with applesauce. Stir the apples into the caramelized sugar.
Simmer the apples over low heat, covered, until they are soft but still hold their shape. Depending on the variety, this will take 20-30 mins. The main thing is not to end up with applesauce. Let the cooked apples cool completely. Then drain off all the liquid. It's best to tip the apples into a colander so the filling is almost dry, otherwise the roll will fall apart during baking.
Next comes the second stage – making the dough. Speaking for myself, it's really interesting and fun. In a deep bowl, combine 2 cups of premium wheat flour and crack in one egg. Warm half a cup of water slightly, so it's just lukewarm, and add 1-2 pinches of salt to it. Pour the water into the flour and knead the dough. I'll say right away: you'll have to add more flour, judging by the state and consistency of the dough. Knead the dough very (!) thoroughly.
The dough should be very soft, yet it must not stick to your hands. Not at all. Roll the dough into a ball and transfer it to a bowl.
Next, for the pastry to turn out right, the dough needs to rest. This is an unusual technique, not typical of most doughs: make a shallow crosswise cut in the dough and generously brush it with olive oil on all sides. You'll need 50-70 ml of olive oil. Cover the dough with an upturned deep plate and refrigerate for 45-60 mins. During this time the dough will mature and the apple filling will have time to cool.
To stretch the dough and shape the strudel, you'll need a large table and a cloth. Cover the table with a clean cloth – canvas or a lint-free towel that is long enough. Then comes the step that left me stunned at first: the cloth needs to be generously dusted with flour. Right away, prepare a baking sheet as well: line it with baking paper and dust the paper with flour. It's worth noting that the size of the baking sheet determines the length of the roll and, accordingly, how far you need to stretch the dough. Keep this in mind.
Stretching strudel dough is an unhurried process that doesn't tolerate fuss. So if you want to bake a masterpiece rather than an apple hand pie, be patient. The dough stretches beautifully with your fingers, and you don't need a rolling pin at all. Place the dough on the floured cloth and, very slowly and carefully, pull it with your fingers starting from the edge, stretching and evening out the thick spots.
If a tear happens to appear in the dough, it doesn't matter, for two reasons. First, strudel is a roll in which the dough is rolled up together with the filling, so all the tears will end up inside. Second, any tear can be patched with a small lump of dough that seals it, and then stretched again.
Keep stretching the dough into a very thin sheet. The sheet should be 25-30 cm wider than the length of your baking sheet. The length is however long it turns out. We ended up with a sheet of dough about 50 cm wide and around 140 cm long. Perfectly straight edges are absolutely not necessary.
The dough turned out so transparent you could read a book through it. The thin sheet will have some unevenness in thickness anyway, with small thick spots – that's normal. If for some reason the uneven edge bothers you, just trim it off.
Everything is ready for shaping the apple strudel. In a small bowl, melt 50 g of butter without letting it get hot. In another bowl, lightly beat one egg. Brush the dough stretched on the cloth with the melted but not hot butter. A silicone brush works great for this. When I was little, my grandmother brushed her roll with a bunch of feathers.
Sprinkle the buttered dough with 3-4 tbsp of breadcrumbs, or with grated and sifted stale bread – a “French” baguette works best. The crumbs will soak up the butter; this is important.
Spread the apple filling, which should be at room temperature, over the prepared dough. Distribute it evenly by hand, leaving an empty strip at one short end, about a quarter of the total length of the dough. Also leave both long edges free of filling, so that the strip of filling is as wide as the baking sheet – the size the strudel will be shaped to.
Along the long sides, fold the overhanging edge of the stretched dough in over the future roll, so that the width of the dough with filling and folded edges matches the length of the baking sheet. You can fold the edge in by 10-12 cm. Do this along the entire length of the dough. At the short end, fold the edge with the filling over by about 12-15 cm to start forming the roll.
Then, lifting the edge of the cloth, turn the bundle of dough and filling over so the strudel rolls itself up. The roll should move toward the edge of the dough without filling that you left at the other short end.
Important: the filled strudel should be short and thick, not long and thin. When the strudel is rolled up to the very end, roll it onto the prepared baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Firm up the stretched-dough apple roll with your hands, shaping it to the length of the baking sheet, and press down any bumps and sticking-out dough. You should end up with a neat, compact roll.
Prick the roll in several places with the tip of a knife to let steam escape, otherwise the steam will burst the delicate stretched dough as it heats.
Brush generously with the beaten egg prepared earlier.
Bake the strudel at 200-210 °C in a well and evenly preheated oven. Baking time is about 25-30 mins. Most likely you'll need to increase the time. The apple strudel won't have time to burn or overbake, but it does need to brown.
Take the finished apple strudel out of the oven, transfer it to a wooden board and let it cool. Although apple strudel is traditionally served warm, hot fresh pastry isn't always a good thing.
Dust with powdered sugar, sifting it through a tea strainer and spreading it evenly. Try to cover any tears and damage on the surface. However hard you try while baking, there will be some.
Cut the roll crosswise into pieces 20-25 mm wide and arrange on plates. Yes, that's it – everything is ready. Pour some delicious tea with lemon, warm cocoa or coffee with cream. All that's left is to sit down at the table and enjoy this amazing dessert. Apple-filled strudel is a first-class dessert. I have friends who roll their eyes with pleasure as they eat it.