flaky austrian apple strudel (apfelstrudel)

A delicately flaky, well balanced apfelstrudel is the Austrian answer to the all American apple pie.

Austrian pastries don’t get nearly enough love, and I admit I too often turn to French desserts when I think of pastry. In Vienna, there’s a cafe called Demel where I discovered the apfelstrudel amongst a mouth watering selection of cakes. It’s rich enough to satisfy as dessert, but also light enough with a cappuccino for breakfast.

I wanted to make a version of apfelstrudel that stayed true to the original and included the instructions for making the dough below. It can be a little tricking managing the dough, and it took me a few tries before I succeeded. Alternatively, you can use store bought phyllo dough to save time. The texture won’t be the same, but it’ll still be delicious nonetheless.

A few tips for success:

• Don’t be afraid to over-knead your dough. The more gluten you form, the easier it will be to stretch it out without ripping the dough later.

• Feel free to get creative with the filling with various spices, nuts, raisins. And if you don’t like any of the components, feel free to omit!

• Make sure to use an apple varietal that is firm so that the apples don’t turn to mush while baking.

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Austrian Apple Strudel
makes one roll - serves 5

ingredients

for the dough:

1 cup bread flour

pinch of salt

1/2 egg, whisked

1/3 cup warm water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

for the filling:

4 medium sized firm apples (e.g. pink lady)

lemon juice & zest (from half a lemon)

1/4 cup toasted and chopped nuts (walnut, hazelnut)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup brown sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup raisins (approx. one of the small boxes)

2 tablespoons rum or water

3 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup sugar

To finish:

3 tablespoons butter, melted

icing sugar to dust

steps

Preparing the dough

1. Mix dry ingredients: In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour and salt

2. Add liquids: Mix together the egg, water, oil, and vinegar in with the flour until you have a shaggy dough. On a flat surface, start firmly kneading the dough until it forms a smooth ball, alternating between slapping the dough on the table. The texture should be soft enough to be tacky without sticking to your hands - if it’s too wet, add more flour as you knead. The goal is to activate the gluten so that we can create a very thin stretched out dough later.

3. Rest: Form the dough into a ball, grease lightly with some vegetable oil, and let it it room temperature in a covered bowl for 30 min to let the gluten relax.

Preparing the apples

Preheat oven to 375 F

1. Prepare apples: Peel, core, and cut apples into thin slices or use a mandolin. Toss with lemon juice, lemon zest, nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and salt. Set aside - the apples will release some of their juice as it sits.

2. Soak raisins: Soak the raisins in rum (if using - use water if you’d rather not use rum) for 10 minutes. Mix with apples. Optional.

3. Toast breadcrumbs: Melt the butter in a small saucepan on low heat. Mix in the breadcrumbs until well incorporated - the breadcrumbs should look sandy. Continue cooking on low, stirring the breadcrumbs until they are lightly toasted. Keep a close eye on the breadcrumbs, they burn easily. Let cool, and mix with sugar.

Putting it all together

1. Stretch out the dough: Clear out plenty of counter space as the dough can get very large. Lay out a clean tablecloth or dish towel and lightly dust with flour. Start by rolling out the dough with a rolling pin. Once it is relatively rolled out, start stretching the dough out with your hands, taking care to avoid any rips. Slip your hands underneath, and with the dough over your knuckles and the assistance of gravity, gently stretch out the dough like you would with a pizza. Take care to stretch out the edges, as the middle tends to stretch out more easily. Dust with flour to prevent dough from sticking to itself as it becomes more stretched out. You should continue until the dough is thin enough to see through it. Trim off any edges that are thicker.

6. Arrange apples: At one end of the stretched out dough, sprinkle half the breadcrumbs, leaving enough space around the edges to initially cover half the apples (about an inch around the sides, and 2 inches at the front). Leave any of the excess liquid that has accumulated in the bowl. Arrange the apples on top of the breadcrumbs in a log-like shape, and top with the rest of the breadcrumbs.

7. Butter her up: Brush the 3 tablespoons melted butter carefully over the uncovered dough. Be gentle as the dough can be quite thin in areas. Keep the leftover butter to brush at the end.

8. Roll up the strudel: Wrap the edges of the dough around the short ends over the apple mound. With the help of the kitchen towel, roll the log down the remaining dough. Apply some pressure to ensure a snug log. Transfer over to a baking sheet lined with parchment with the seam side down. Generously brush the top with the remaining butter.

9. Bake: Bake the strudel for 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. If you have some extra melted butter left, feel free to give it an extra brush of butter for extra crispiness after the first 15 minutes.

10. To serve: Let the strudel cool for 20 minutes before serving. Cut into 4-5 servings, and generously sprinkle with icing sugar. Serve with some whipped cream or creme fraiche. Enjoy!

apple tarte tatin

As we head into fall, I’m just sitting here wondering where the summer went? While I didn’t get to take some of the bigger vacations I had planned, this has been an unexpected opportunity for us to explore our own backyard a little more. We’ve spent the summer visiting farms throughout the Hudson Valley and gathering the seasonal produce as we went from strawberries and asparagus to blueberries and now peaches and corn. I’m a little sad to see the long summer days go, but as Taylor Swift said so wisely, “August sipped away like a bottle of wine”.

However, with the crisp air comes apple season! As you start to haul home your bags of freshly picked apples, this is the perfect time to get a little creative and instead of making a traditional apple pie, why not try a tarte tatin? It may be a few extra steps, but it is 100% worth it. The apples are cooked in a rich caramel until they melt in your mouth and topped with a buttery, flaky pastry crust before being flipped upside down to serve. Cooking the apples in caramel gives you a deep, rich flavor that you don’t get in regular apple pie.

For the crust, you can use either a pie-based pastry or puff pastry. I’m making a “rough puff”, which is essentially a cheater’s puff pastry, by making a few adjustments to the basic pie crust recipe to get a little more flakiness. While some recipes suggest making everything in one oven safe pan, I’ve actually elected to first cook my apples down in a large pan, before sending it into the oven in a round cake pan. The walls help the apples fit more snugly, and the lighter, more compact cake pan makes it easier to flip at the end.

A few tips for success:

• Use firm apples that will hold their shape. The first time I tried with granny smith apples, and the apples just dissolved into applesauce. Not pleasant.

• Keep the dough cold throughout the rolling process. If you feel it warming up or the dough starts to feel greasy, stick it back into the fridge for 20 minutes before continuing.

• Bake in a different pan than you use to cook the apples. It’s easier to use a larger pan to cook down the apples, and you have the flexibility to thicken the caramel sauce without overcooking the apples if needed.

• When cutting out the dough shape, keep in mind the dough may shrink a bit in the oven so give yourself a little more to work with.

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Apple Tarte Tatin
makes one tart

ingredients

for the pie crust:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cut in 1/2 in cubes

4 - 5 tablespoons ice water

for the filling:

6 medium sized firm apples (e.g. pink lady)

lemon juice (from half a lemon)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2/3 cup sugar, sifted

3 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

steps

Preparing the pie crust

1. Mix dry ingredients: In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour and salt

2. Incorporate butter with flour: Toss the butter with flour mixture until butter pieces are covered. Flatten the butter cubes either between your fingers or the palm of your hands. Continue until the butter pieces are the size of walnut pieces.

3. Hydrate: Sprinkle the ice water into the mixture one tablespoon at a time, using your fingers to lightly toss the flour in between water additions (use a light touch, similar to how you would toss a salad). At this stage, you want to add just enough water for the dough to come together. Once you’ve added 4 tablespoons of water, you may need to add a little more so continue to sprinkle water on the remaining dry spots. A properly hydrated dough should be able to stay together but not tacky to the touch. If butter has started to melt, stick the dough back into the freezer for a few minutes.

4. Fold: To create even more layers + help the dough come together, roll out the dough and using a bench scraper, fold it back over itself in thirds (like an envelope). Turn 90 degrees and repeat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 min, before repeating the folding process (rolling out twice in each turn) two more times. It is important to keep the dough cold, to prevent the butter from melting into the dough. Keep refrigerated until ready for use.

Preparing the filling

Preheat oven to 400 F

1. Prepare apples: Peel, core, and cut apples into quarters. Toss with lemon juice and cinnamon.

2. Make caramel: Over medium heat, sprinkle half the sugar into the pan in thin, even layer. Do not disturb, as the sugar starts to melt and caramelize. Sprinkle in the rest of the sugar, and turn heat down to low to prevent caramel from burning. Continue cooking until caramel reaches a rich amber color.

Caramel tips: Use a dry pan with no water. Avoid stirring, though it’s fine to use a spatula to get all the sugar around the edges incorporated.

3. Add butter: Whisk in the butter cubes. The caramel will initially look like its seizing up, but as you continue to whisk, it will smooth out and the color will turn more toffee like.

4. Cook apples: Add the apple quarters to the caramel, with heat on low simmer. Mix so that all the apples are tossed in the caramel. As the caramel touches the cooler apples, they may harden at first but don’t worry, as the apples start to release their juices, the caramel will loosen up into a syrup. Continue cooking the apples for 10 - 15 min, until the apples have softened up and are no longer crispy. Let cool for 10 minutes.

5. Roll out the crust: Roll out the pastry dough to just under 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out a circle, leaving 1 extra inch around the circumference of your pan. Set aside.

6. Arrange apples: Transfer the apples into the cake pan, and arrange the apples with the cut edge facing up. Keep the apples fit snugly, with about 2/3 overlap. Spoon remaining caramel sauce over the apples. Transfer the pastry circle you just rolled out over the apples, tucking in the dough around the edges. If your apples are still a little warm, your dough may get soft quickly and it may be easier to use a spatula to help tuck the dough in around the edges.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until pastry is golden brown. If serving immediately: let cool for 15 min, place a plate over the pan, and quickly flip the pan over. If serving later, reheat the pan to loosen up the caramel (the apples can get stuck if the pan if the caramel has thickened too much) before flipping. Serve with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.