Preferably not made with phyllo dough? Most online recipes sound bland or boring, and I’m not a fan of filo for this type of dessert.
This isn’t exactly a strudel, but it might be close enough for you. It’s delicious and looks beautiful on a platter too.
I like the spices in that and may give it a try.
I haven’t made this, but KAF is generally pretty reliable:
That said, Strudel from scratch sounds like an unholy PITA.
We made a savoury strudel from scratch last year, I don’t recall the recipe we used. But it was actually much easier and more doable than it seemed! It was really fun to stretch the dough on a cloth and then roll it up. The Bake-Off episode featuring strudels might give some handling tips.
Yeah, that dough looks like a real challenge. I’m leaning toward trying something with puff pastry at this point.
Here’s an apple dessert made with puff pastry that’s both easy and delicious (and you could probably just make one big one instead individual ones if you want):
Individual puff pastry apple pies
1 (17 ounce) package puff pastry (2 sheets)
12 ounces cut up red baking apples (approx. 2 medium sized apples)
1⁄3 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 beaten egg
Thaw puff pastry according to directions on package.
Heat oven to 400°F.
Peel, core and chop apples up coarsely.
Combine apples with sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Flour surface lightly and cut each pastry sheet into nine 3"x3" squares.
Place approximately 1/4 cup apple mixture on each of nine of the squares and brush edge with beaten egg.
Place a second plain pastry square on top of each filled pastry.
Press down border with fingers to seal and then press with fork to decorate the edges.
Make a 1-inch L shape incision into the top of each pie and fold back the pastry flap.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet and give each one an egg wash.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden.
No kidding. Making proper Austrian-style strudel dough from scratch takes some time. Traditional ingredients are pastry flour (type 405 as it’s called in German-speaking countries, basically you want a very high gluten content), cooking oil and water, maybe a pinch of salt. Knead enthusiastically for some time - faking the enthusiasm works too, the dough does not care - then let it rest for a bit.
The resulting dough should be very elastic, and you “pull it out” with your hands until it’s almost translucent. The old saying is that it should be thin enough to read a newspaper through it.
For the filling use big cooking apples with a high acid content, for example Boskoop. You also need roasted bread crumbs, raisins, rum, chopped or ground walnuts (almonds work too), lemon juice (and zest if you like), sugar and cinnamon. Melted butter is also needed.
This recipe here looks close to how I would make Apfelstrudel:
http://www.lilvienna.com/homemade-apple-strudel/
Serve dusted with a little powdered sugar. Or alternatively, serve with vanilla sauce, vanilla icecream or whipped cream, but be advised that purists will possibly scoff at you for that.
In Hungary, there is an old cookbook that says “The housewife will know her strudel dough is good enough when she can take a piece of dough the size of a bread roll and work it sufficiently to wrap up a Hussar and his horse in strudel.”
I’ve watched some old Hungarian grandmas make strudel (rétes in Hungarian) and it’s a sight to behold and not something I have any interest in trying to do myself. The way I’ve seen it is a large table with a floured linen/pastry cloth covering it, and then stretching out the dough carefully from maybe a dough ball maybe about 8-10 inches in diameter to cover and overhang a table maybe 2 1/2 feet by 4–5 feet using nothing but your hands (and maybe a rolling pin for the initial flattening, but it’s not necessary.) The trick seems to be in getting the dough just right, and having enough technique to pull it evenly, because they make it look easy when they do it, but if I tried to do it with my own dough, I’m sure it’d break and tear in no time.
Here’s an example of what turning out an Austro-Hungarian strudel looks like. I’ve seen people work much, much faster than that, but it gives you an idea.
Maybe one of these days I’ll try it, but I have a feeling I’ll get frustrated and give up before learning the technique.
:eek: Okay, never mind then.
Well, araminty said they were successful on first try, so I’ll be curious to here their recipe, technique, etc. I’ve never had any luck stretching doughs anywhere near that thinly by hand.
Basically the same technique as phyllo, but substitute Greek grandma (or in this case, grandpa) for the Hungarian one. 
I’ll pass and just buy the store-bought stuff.
Wow, she has an amazing intuitive feel for the dough, and how much strain it can take.
Like I said, much easier than I expected, and really fun! Everyone doubting themselves, give it a try. I make a lot of bread, so I guess I have a bit of feel for stretching and shaping dough, and when to stop pulling. I don’t recall the recipe we used, I think it had eggs and oil in it, and we stretched it on a floured sheet to help roll it up.
That’s a good one, never heard that saying before.
Austro-Hungarian sweet dishes are the best. The savoury dishes diverge a bit more, but the sweet ones are very similar in both countries. I know I’ve shared a bonding moment or two with random Hungarians on the internet over the fact that the only “proper” plum dumplings are the ones made with potato dough.
The strudel from Inglorious Basterds
Don’t think so. Phyllo is mostly rolled whereas strudel dough is apparently mostly stretched.
You didn’t look at the video I posted, did you?
On a related note – what kind of apples do you use for strudel, and similar baked goods? Does it depend on the time of year?
I mostly make pie, and I like my apple slices to hold some shape when I cook them. At peak apple season, my favorite is Jonathan, but it doesn’t keep its firmness very well. Its flavor is fabulous when cooked – less tart, but richer and deeper than raw. Ida-red is a decent cooking apple later in the season. It’s also huge, which makes it incredibly easy to process. But it’s blander than Jonathan. I’ve used the French apple, Caville Blanc, which (in season) is terrifically firm and holds its shape even when you cut it into very fine slices. It also has a nice flavor.
Northern Spy is a traditional American cooking apple but it’s the apple used in most commercially-made baked-apple goods, and they are often too sweet and gooey (too much goo, not enough apple) so I associate its flavor with low-quality.
Anyone else?
I use Honeycrisp as my general all-purpose apple these days. Crisp enough to hold its shape in cooking, and sweet enough that it doesn’t need much extra sugar. I also like wine saps, but I don’t see those much these days and when I can find them they’re usually only really good right at the start of their availability. I love their flavor when they are at their peak. Pink Lady/Cripps are pretty good too.
I’m just glad we have choices in apples now. For so many years there wasn’t much of that and most of them weren’t very good. It’s fun to be able to try different kinds.