An Apfelstrudel is a typical Austrian recipe. I made one some time ago with grandma and took pictures for the blog. Every Austrian knows the recipe (or asks their grandma), so there is no point in publishing it in German. Since my blog also has many English readers who might enjoy baking, I plan to post some very traditional baking recipes in English in the future. Please enjoy grandma’s Apfelstrudel recipe!
The Apfelstrudel dough
1/2 tea spoon salt
1 table spoon oil
1/2 tea spoon vinegar
1/8 L water (half a cup), lukewarm
Put flour, water (warm!), oil, vinegar and salt in a bowl and mix it with a spoon. Afterwards knead the dough until it’s shiny. Split it into three equally sized parts and roll them until they are round balls. Spread oil on them, cover with a dishtowel and let it rest for 30 minutes.
The filling
130 g bread crumbs
70 g butter
70 g caster sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla sugar
cinnamon
milk
raisins
For a proper Apfelstrudel apples from your own garden are the best. But you can also buy them 😉 Peel and core them, then cut them into small pieces.
Roast the bread crumbs in a coated pan (without fat). Later add melted butter (for this I use the microwave), sugar and vanilla sugar.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
For this dough you don’t need a rolling pin. It should be pulled apart with your hands until it is so thin that you can look through it. To make the process easier, grandma puts the dough on a dishtowel before pulling it out. This step “ausziehen” is the reason for the name “ausgezogener Apfelstrudel” (pulled out Apfelstrudel).
Distribute the filling and the apples evenly on the dough. Spread some cinnamon on the filling. Optionally also add raisins (I don’t like them but traditionally they are part of the recipe). We usually make two with raisins and one without raisins.
Fold in two opposite edges (3-4 cm on each side) to keep the filling inside the roll. Then roll the Strudel in the orthogonal direction. To make the rolling easier, use the dishtowel in the same fashion as rolling Sushi with a bamboo mat.
Repeat these steps for the other two Strudels. Put them next to each other into a baking dish and brush them with melted butter.
After about 30 minutes (when the dough starts to get brown), pour hot milk over the Strudels. Bake for another 30 minutes (at least) until the dough is brown and crunchy. Enjoy!
