The name “strudel”—a rolled pastry of thin, stretched dough filled with apples—comes from the German word for “whirl” or “eddy.” Bite into the paper-thin crust dusted with powdered sugar and you’ll be swept into a blissful swirl of fruit and spice. The world’s most popular apple-and-cinnamon strudel is best enjoyed hot, straight from the oven, and it’s often served with a scoop of ice cream or a drizzle of vanilla sauce.
Ingredients for the dough (serves 6): 2 cups of flour, 1 egg, 70 g of butter, 150 g of milk, 2 teaspoons of dry yeast, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt.
Ingredients for the filling: 2 apples, 100 g of butter, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs. To prepare the yeast dough, make a sponge: in a bowl, mix the yeast with the sugar and enough warm water to cover the mixture. Let the sponge sit in a warm place for 20 minutes. Add the sponge to the flour along with warm milk, butter, egg, sugar, and salt. Knead the dough. Let the dough rise in a warm place for an hour and a half—until it doubles in size.
Roll out the risen dough into a thin rectangular sheet (no thicker than 2 mm). Brush the surface with melted butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Arrange thinly sliced apples over the breadcrumbs and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar.
Roll the dough with the filling into a log, brush the surface with beaten egg, and place the strudel in a preheated oven at 180 °C for 30 minutes.
Once the apple strudel is ready, cut it into portions and dust with powdered sugar. Serve with ice cream or a vanilla sauce.
Life Hack
Make a vanilla sauce from 500 ml milk, 2 beaten egg yolks, 60 g sugar, 1 teaspoon butter, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, and the seeds from half a vanilla pod. Bring the milk to a boil, then whisk in the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla seeds. Cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens slightly, then stir in the butter. Strain the sauce through a sieve into a clean container for a smooth consistency.
