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Apple Strudel

I consulted the wonderful book Classic German Baking for ideas on what to do with my treasure trove of apples. I decided to make a true apple strudel, which turned out to be an interesting adventure. It has surprisingly little sugar but makes up for that with lots and lots of butter.

The dough is surprisingly simple and based on oil, not butter. The book suggests kneading it by hand for ten minutes. Being an impatient American, I threw it into the Kitchenaid for about 4 minutes. The result was a nice little ball that went into the refrigerator to rest.

A base for the apples is made from bread crumbs, butter, sugar, and vanilla. (The authentic choice would be vanilla sugar.) The combination is roasted to a toasty brown. The result is amazingly tasty.

I next peeled, cored, and sliced the apples. They went into a bowl along with sugar, cinnamon, and raisins.

I ground the cinnamon with my spice grinder rather than using the pre-ground stuff. What a difference---so much more aroma.

The dough is rolled out part way, then stretched by hand to its final size. The book suggests preparing the dough on a towel. I didn't have a towel with a fine enough grain in the fabric so I used parchment paper; this has the wonderful benefit of being oven-friendly. The dough is stretched with the heel of your hand. The technique is different from that used for pizza dough but the result is very similar---an amazingly thin dough. I tried to repair my occasional tears in the dough which ended up contributing to its misshapenness. Oh well, I guess I will have to practice with yet more strudels.

The bread crumbs go down first on one side of the dough; they serve to soak up the juices from the apples. The apple mixture goes on top. You then lift the paper to roll the dough around the filling, then turn it into a circle. The thinness of the dough makes this operation much delicate than is the assembly of a pie. My result was messy.

The strudel is baked in three 15-minute steps. Before each step, the strudel is smothered in melted butter. The result is a very crispy crust. The recommended procedure for eating a strudel is to apply powdered sugar, then vanilla ice cream. It's hard to argue with those instructions.

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