Daring Bakers - Apple Strudel

Better a day late than never. I was excited about this month’s Daring Baker challenge which was apple strudel. Strudel is not something that I would probably buy if I was choosing at the bakery, but my husband absolutely loves this kind of thing. Strudel does have fond memories for me of our trip to Europe five years ago.

It was a beautiful day when we drove from Munich to Salzburg. I am a die hard Sound of Music fan so I was very excited to be going to the city where the movie was based. We camped round Europe and had this wonderful book which advised the best camping grounds round Europe. We selected one and it was so picturesque! Perched on the hill above Salzburg, just as you would imagine Austria to be. Unfortunately about an hour after we pitched our tent, the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. And rain it did!. The whole two days we were in Salzburg it completely poured down. We ended up leaving the tent and renting a smelly old caravan in the camping ground – I was too scared to sit down it was so dirty.

Anyway, the point of this story is that one of the highlights of the trip to Salzburg was the apple strudel served in the camping ground restaurant. It was made on the premises and was a flaky, light, delicious pastry, so I was excited when this was chosen as a daring baker challenge as it gave me the chance to try my hand.

I imagine that there are all sorts of strudels that you can make other than apple. But as soon as I think of strudel I think of that apple strudel in Austria, so I decided to stick with the suggested apple and walnut. I’m not sure why I left it to the last minute to make my strudel, but I made the pastry for it on Monday night, resting it in the fridge over two days and then completing the strudel last night. To roll the pastry thin enough you rolled the dough on a floured table cloth (I used a tea towel). After rolling with the rolling pin, you stretched the dough by hand. I didn’t get mine as big as the recipe said, but it was still pretty thin.

The filling was toasted breadcrumbs (I guess to stop the filling leaking through the pastry), sliced apples, walnuts, cinnamon and sugar. The strudel was then rolled and baked in a crescent shape. My biggest regret was not having any vanilla ice cream to eat the warm strudel with, as that would have been the perfect accompaniment! I loved the strudel – perhaps not quite as good as the one we had in Salzburg, but still pretty good! My husband loved it too. I even tried a little bit cold from the fridge this morning and it was delicious.

I also loved this challenge as to me this is what the Daring bakers is all about – trying out new things that I wouldn’t necessarily do by myself. Check out how the other Daring Bakers did here.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.