I made a promise, to you guys and especially to an American lady, about a week ago, to translate the Austrian Apfelstrudel recipe from German into English. The recipe is taken from Valerie Stuppbäck’s book “Österreichisches Kochbuch – So koche ich für meine Familie” (1998). I love this book and it is absolutely one of my favourite Austrian cook books. 
The picture is borrowed from http://lebensmittel-warenkunde.de
Recipe
Dough (Strudelteig)
- 250 gr plain flour (nothing else than plain flour)
- salt
- about 1/8 litre lukewarm water
Filling
- 120 gr butter
- 120 gr crumbs
- 1 ½ kg apples
- 50 gr raisins
- cinnamon
- butter for coating and baking
Dough:
To make a simple pastry dough just use flour, salt and lukewarm water. This is the easiest and safest way to make good pastry. You prepare the dough for as long as possible, with a wooden spoon and then knead it nice and tightly. The dough should have a nice shiny and silky appearance. For best results form the pastry into a loaf shape and leave in a pre-warmed covered bowl for 30 mins to allow the pastry to rest.
You place a tablecloth or a large napkin on the table, dust it with flour and knead the dough a bit. Then pull the dough over the back of your hand, and repeating so it turns and expands. When it appears large enough, put it onto the floured cloth and pull it out until it is quite thin. It should be so thin that you can read a cookbook held underneath.
To prepare the Strudel cut the thick edges away, then add the filling (see below) to about two thirds of the dough. Then start to roll the dough where the filling is with the aid of the cloth. Brush the last third of the dough with melted butter before rolling.
Once the Strudel is all rolled up you need to transfer to a greased baking sheet (use the cloth to help). This will take some practice, and the first couple of time the Strudel will probably fall apart. But don’t panic too much, because when the Strudel is cut into pieces no one will notice it.
Then once on the baking sheet brush the Strudel with melted butter all over and place into a pre-heated oven (medium heat) and bake for 1 Hour.
Apfelstrudel filling:
The filling is very simple.
Just toast some breadcrumbs in some butter and then spread these onto the pastry. Then add thinly sliced and pealed apples along with raisins and a good sprinkling of Cinnamon on top of the Breadcrumbs.
As an alternative to Apple you could also try Cherry or Blueberry instead for a different taste.
The author named the Strudel “Dragon”. Don’t know if I can agree with her because I think it looks like a pastry with apple, raisin and cinnamon filling…but you never know I MIGHT be WRONG!! Haha
