After a yearly tradition of dragging (he actually happily comes along) my fiancé to the apple orchard, I decided to put those apples to good use! I purposely picked Golden Delicious and Gala apples with the thought that I don’t like to eat them raw so I guess I’ll have to bake them, shucks. I also picked Honeycrisp that are in my opinion the best to eat raw, crispy and juicy sweet.
My father made some apple turnovers the week before using frozen puff pastry so I thought it could work for a fast strudel as well. I wanted to add some flair and flavours from my childhood to the recipe, so I came up with pine nuts and alcohol soaked raisins.
Olivia’s Quick and Delicious Apple Strudel Recipe
Ingredients:
1 package of frozen puff pastry (1 package should come with 2 sheets inside)
3-4 medium apples
1 ½ cups sultana raisins
1 1/2 cups of rum or flavoured brandy
1 cup of chopped nuts (walnuts, pine nuts or pecans)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of fine plain bread crumbs
½ tsp. of salt
1 tsp. of cinnamon
1 egg
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon
Step 1.
Let the puff pastry sit on the counter to thaw at least an hour before you are ready to assemble your strudel. Place the raisins in a bowl and cover completely with rum or flavoured brandy. I used Wiser’s Apricot Brandy and it turned out delicious.
Step 2.
After an hour of Netflix or napping you can start to make your strudel! Peel and cut the apples into slices so they will lie flat when rolled into the pastry. Places the sliced apples into a big bowl and add salt, ½ cup of the brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Drain the raisins well, add them to the apple mixture and mix until incorporated. Set the bowl aside and cover with saran wrap.
Step 3.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a deep pan, mix the breadcrumbs and chopped nuts together. Quickly toast the breadcrumbs and nut mixture over medium heat for approximately 3 minutes or until browned. Make sure to continuously stir the mixture so it doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Step 4.
Open the puff pastry box and unroll each sheet onto a spread out towel on a flat surface. This towel will help you to roll the pastry into a log easily.
Step 5.
Working on the first sheet of puff pastry, spread half of the breadcrumb mixture onto only half of the puff pastry leaving a 1-inch border empty. This border will be brushed with an egg wash for sealing later on. Take half of the apple mixture and spread it on top of the breadcrumbs. Remember that the filling isn’t going to show so you don’t have to be perfect!
Step 6.
Mix an egg with a splash of water and brush onto the 1-inch border of your pastry making sure not to touch the filling. Taking the bottom edge of the towel with your two hands, flip over the edge closest to the filling away form you to start the rolling process. Continue rolling until the entire filling is inside the roll. With the seam end up, fold and seal over the two ends and crimp with a fork.
Step. 7
Repeat step 7 with the second pastry sheet. Line a large pan with parchment paper. Place both logs onto pan seam side down. Brush entire strudel rolls with the remainder of the egg wash and sprinkle with brown sugar if you’d like. Take a sharp knife and score tiny slits on the top of each strudel. Bake for 30 minutes. Let the strudel sit on the counter until you can’t take it anymore and have to cut into heaven and enjoy!
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