Exquisite Viennese Apple Strudel Recipe

A great classic of German and Austrian pastry that reminds me of my childhood cakes. Of all the recipes, I have chosen and tailored this one for its typical strudel taste and its dough that is still a little crunchy when fresh, and soft the next day. I have perfected it with great care and many tests until I was completely satisfied. The cake is excellent and of superior quality. Guaranteed success among gourmets. Everything is detailed so that you can succeed on the first try.

Ingredients for Strudel dough:

• 200 g all-purpose wheat flour T65 type,
• 50 g melted butter,
• a pinch of salt (1 g),
• 75 ml hot water.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 800 g apples, giving about 600 g of cut fruit; the flavour of tangy apples is essential, such as Boskoop, Braeburn, Elstar, Jonathan, Reinette, Cox Orange… or pair a sweet apple with a sour apple, such as Golden with Granny Smith,
• 60 g moistened raisins,
• 25 to 30 ml rum,
• 75 g blond cane caster sugar,
• 50 g powdered hazelnuts,
• 5 g (11/2 teaspoons) ground cinnamon,
• 1 g (1/4 teaspoon) ground cloves,
• 40 g breadcrumbs.
• 30 g melted butter or 25 g of oil neutral in taste to brush the dough. Add 15 g of melted butter or 10 g of extra oil if you roll the dough in two turns.

Course of the recipe:

Strudel dough:

Dough in the pan

Melt the butter. In a large bowl, pour the flour, melted butter and a pinch of salt, and mix with a mixer at low speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, pour the water into the dough and keep the saucepan warm (about 60°) on the hot plate turned off but still hot. Knead at higher speed for 2 minutes for a uniform texture. If the dough is not smooth, work the dough by hand for 1 minute to agglomerate it well, but no more, as the dough should not be overworked. Cut a disc of the diameter of the still hot saucepan and place the dough on it. Cover the saucepan with a lid, place the saucepan on the hot plate that is turned off but still a little hot and rest the dough for 30 minutes.

Filling:

Cutting apples

Mixing the filling

Drop the raisins in a small saucepan, cover them with 30 ml of rum, warm them over very low heat (about 40°) for 30 minutes, put a lid on the saucepan. Once soaked, warm them over medium-high heat until they are very hot (80°), stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat and ignite it with a lighter. Shake the pan until the flame goes out. Peel the apples and cut them into matchstick shapes 5 mm thick. Set them in a large mixing bowl and add the flambéed raisins, sugar, hazelnut powder and spices and mix evenly.

Forming the Strudel dough:

Rectangle of dough on a tea towel

Grease and breadcrumbs

On the work table, place a clean tea towel of at least 60 × 50 cm and sprinkle it with flour. Take the dough out of the saucepan and lay it in the centre of the tea towel. Using a rolling pin, form a 45 × 45-50 cm rectangle. The dough should be very elastic and thin. The more you turn it, the more the dough will be like a puff pastry, with the risk that after baking the dough will be brittle and crumbly, as it will be drier and more fragile; it is essential to brush the dough with 15 g of melted butter or 10 g of extra oil halfway through the baking process; the dough will also regain its suppleness and moisture by wrapping it in plastic film for 24 hours. To be adapted according to personal taste. To stretch the dough evenly, put your hands under the dough and pull it towards you to continue stretching it while avoiding tearing it. The rectangle must be perfect. If the roller starts to mark the dough, it is dry and you must stop stretching it. Use the 2/3 of the fat to brush the entire surface of the dough with a brush (either 25 g of melted butter or 20 g of neutral oil). Sprinkle the dough with breadcrumbs, which will absorb the juice of the apples during cooking, avoiding the edges on a 2 cm strip.

Roll out the dough:

Dough rolling method

Cover the dough with the apple and flavour mixture evenly outside the 2 cm around the top, bottom and left edges, and outside the 5 cm on the right edge. This gives an area of about 40 × 40 cm of apples. Fold down the three edges, top, bottom and left by 5 cm (except the right edge which will seal the dough), thus covering a little of the filling. Lift up the tea towel on the left side of the dough to help you start rolling to the end. The right edge of the dough should be empty of any filling in a strip of about 5 cm. Roll up until the last edge becomes the bottom of the cake, to prevent it from opening when baking. Be careful with this handling because the dough is thin and very fragile, it is easily punctured.

Baking:

Lay the cake on baking paper using the tea towel, then move it to a baking tray. Be careful, the cake is fragile to handle, so ask for help. With a brush, brush the outside of the dough with the remaining fat. Put in the oven at 180° (convection) or 160° (fan-assisted oven) for 50 minutes to 1 hour depending on the oven. The dough should begin to turn slightly blond, but not brown.

Cake after baking

Viennese Strudel (Apfelstrudel)

Allow the cake to cool down for about an hour. It should still be lukewarm when eaten. It can be kept for 2 days in the refrigerator covered with plastic film (the dough will become wetter and softer), and it is always tastier when it is lukewarm.