German strudel is a delicacy that has gained recognition not only in European countries, but also far beyond the continent. If you have to visit Vienna, be sure to try this unique pastry in local pastry shops. German chefs are proud that they need remarkable skill to make a real strudel. After all, the dough of this roll should be very thin and at the same time melt in the mouth. By the way, in Austria in ancient times, often the decisive argument when choosing a bride was her ability to bake delicious strudel. But if the groom’s family doesn’t like baking, then the wedding could easily be canceled.
The German strudel got its name from the word which means “whirlwind” or “tornado”, because this dessert is nothing but a roll of thinly stretched dough with filling. Strudel is most often prepared with fruit and berry filling, however, there are recipes for this dish prepared with mushrooms, meat or cabbage. But still, classic German pastries are rolls stuffed with apples and cinnamon.
In Austria and Germany, this dessert is extremely popular. It is served in almost all cafes, and in shops they sell semi-finished strudel, which can only be baked. But since such semi-finished products are rare, we will try to bake German strudel on our own.
So, we need about two hundred grams of flour, one eighth liter of water, a spoonful of vegetable oil, one egg and salt. You also need to stock up on flour and butter to lubricate the product.
To make the filling, take a kilogram of sour apples, one hundred and fifty grams of breadcrumbs and granulated sugar, eighty grams of butter, the same amount of seedless raisins, half a spoonful of cinnamon, a bag of vanilla sugar and one hundred grams of icing sugar. If the delicacy is prepared only for adults, then two tablespoons of rum or cognac can be added to the filling.
Pour the flour up a slide, making a recess on top. In warm water, stir the egg with salt and vegetable oil. Pour the liquid into the recess and knead the dough. Coat the rolled up dough ball with vegetable oil and leave in a warm place under the lid for proofing.
Then spread a kitchen towel on the table and sprinkle flour on its surface. Roll out the dough into a thin cake on a towel and generously grease its surface with butter, which you must first melt. Let the dough stand for a while in this form, and then stretch it with your hands in all directions, trying to make the cake as thin as possible. At the end of the process, you need to trim the edges of the dough, forming a regular rectangle from it.
For the filling, you need to peel the apples by removing the core and peel, then cut them into thin “noodles”, about three millimeters thick. Dissolve the butter in a frying pan and fry the breadcrumbs on it until golden brown. Cool crackers and sprinkle them on the surface of the cake. Mix apples with raisins, cinnamon, plain and vanilla sugar. Then spread the apple filling on the dough layer, leaving the edge of the lozenge about two centimeters wide. Then, helping yourself with a towel, roll the dough into a tight roll, tucking it and clipping the free edge.
Gently place the strudel on a baking sheet and once again generously grease it with melted butter on top. The oven rolls at a temperature of two hundred and twenty degrees for forty minutes, until it acquires a brown crust.
You can serve German strudel directly “with heat”, sprinkling it with powdered sugar. But when cold, this dessert is very tasty, especially if you offer a ball of cream ice cream or whipped cream. Such strudel can also be baked with other fruits, such as pears or apricots. Also, in the filling, you can add nuts - walnuts or cedar.
But if this recipe for German strudel seems too complicated for you, then you can prepare a simplified version of this dessert from a ready-made puff pastry. For example, with cherries.
Take a package (500 grams) of frozen cherry and put the berries in a bowl (no need to defrost). Then add two hundred (and more) grams of powdered sugar and a full spoonful of starch. Optionally, you can add cinnamon or vanillin to the filling.
Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangular layer and sprinkle one half of the resulting rectangle with breadcrumbs. We spread cherries on crackers and cover them on top with the free half of the dough. We fasten the edges of the pie and transfer it to the baking sheet. Then, along the entire upper surface, make frequent cross sections and grease the cake with the egg. We bake the strudel at a temperature of one hundred eighty degrees for twenty minutes, serve chilled. Of course, such a pie can only be called a German strudel, but it is much easier to prepare and, at the same time, very tasty.