Master Chef Apple Strudel
Submitted by Ron
Old-world apple strudel with dough stretched by hand until paper-thin, wrapped around cinnamon-spiced MacIntosh apples. The real from-scratch method, no phyllo, with bread crumbs to keep it crisp.
YIELD
18 servingsPREP
2 hrsCOOK
1 hrsREADY
3 hrsThis is strudel the old way, made on a floured tablecloth with your knuckles and a good deal of patience. No boxed phyllo here. You build an egg-rich dough, knead it smooth, and let it rest in a warm spot so the gluten relaxes enough to stretch.
And stretch it does. You pull the dough over the backs of your fists, working around and around until it’s so thin you could almost read a newspaper through it. A hole or two will open up, and that’s completely normal, so don’t fret over a small tear.
The filling is humble and honest: thin-sliced apples, a dusting of cinnamon, sugar adjusted to how tart your fruit runs, and a scatter of bread crumbs. Those crumbs matter. They drink up the apple juices so the bottom bakes crisp instead of soggy.
MacIntosh apples are the pick for their soft, saucy texture, and bigger fruit means far less peeling. Lift the whole sheet with the cloth, roll it long, and bake until deep golden.
Chef Tips
- Rest the dough in a warm place. Cold dough fights back and tears instead of stretching.
- Pull from underneath with the backs of your hands, not your fingertips, to keep from punching holes.
- Don’t skip the bread crumbs. They’re the line between crisp pastry and a soggy base.
- Cool the strudel about 20 minutes before slicing so the filling sets and the layers hold.
Variations
- Add raisins, currants, or chopped walnuts to the apple filling for a more traditional roll.
- Swap MacIntosh for a firmer apple like Granny Smith if you want more bite and tang.
- Brush the baked strudel with melted butter and dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Ingredients
Directions
Three cups sifted flour. Make well. Add 2 beaten eggs. Mix with wire beater.
Add ½ cup warm water and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Mix well with spoon and knead with fingers for about 2 minutes, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking, and making it into a ball.
Put dough in a bowl covered with a dish towel and set aside in a warm place (I use my oven which is warm because of the pilot light. Don’t light oven until much later on). This whole procedure is quite time consuming and takes about 1½ hours to prepare. Let dough rest while peeling and slicing 3 pounds large MacIntosh apples. (Pick largest apples you can find to facilitate peeling procedure.)
STEP TWO: Cut dough in half. Put half back in bowl covered with dish towel in warm place. On top of a well floured cloth tablecloth roll out ½ dough. Drizzle on 1 tablespoon melted butter spreading all over rolled out dough.
Pick up rolled out dough and stretch as much as possible (just like a pizza dough is stretched, making fists with hands to prevent making too many holes in dough -- usually a hole or two appears which is not unusual).
Put back on well floured tablecloth. Next try to achieve a paper thin dough by pulling all around and around it with the fingers. Don’t worry if there are a few holes here and there.
STEP THREE: Using HALF of the thinly sliced apples, spread them all uniformly over dough that you covered the tablecloth with. Sprinkle on top of apples: 7 to 9 teaspoons sugar according to taste and depending on tartness of apples -- 4 teaspoons bread crumbs -- sift cinnamon all over above- drizzle on ¼ pound melted butter -- also 2 beaten eggs spreading the eggs with a fork in a circular motion.
Pick up the tablecloth and make a long roll and carefully lift roll into a large ungreased shallow baking pan. If you prefer you may put the roll into a pie plate starting in the middle and making a circle with the roll.
Repeat steps 2 and 3, using second half of dough and the remaining half of apples. Since these steps take about 20 minutes, allow about 10 minutes to preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).
After making the roll, if you choose to use a large shallow baking pan careful ly put the roll in the pan right along with first half of roll. You will have about four strips in the pan because the roll will be that long. If you used a pie plate, take a second pie plate for the second half of the strudel. Now you are finally ready to put the strudl in the oven: 400℉ (200℃) for 40 minutes and 15 minutes more at 350℉ (180℃).
Allow strudl to cool 20 to 25 minutes. Slice and put on serving plate.
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