Apfelstrudel

I have decided to make an Apfelstrudel today Sunday since we were craving for it since last week. You must have heard about it or you may have tasted one already. It is a famous dessert here in Austria and almost all coffee shops or corner cafes particularly in Vienna serve this. Tourists from all over the world swore never to leave the city without them tasting this in a Viennese cafe. It is already famous long before Arnold Schwarzenegger had the idea to serve this in his restaurant in California.

In this recipe, I have replaced the raisins with dried cranberries since the latter is too sweet for my tooth. The original recipe of Oma Lisi ( hubby´s grandma) calls for almonds, but since I do not have them in my pantry, I used walnuts instead. The lemon zest/rind gives a good aroma for the dough. I hope you would try this someday, I can tell you now that it is scrumptious.

Ingredients:

250 flour
100 grams of sugar
40 gram melted margarine or butter
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp lemon zest (organic)
¼ liter buttermilk
salt
1 egg
6 tbsp oil

1 kg Apples, (Golden delicious, Gala, Boskop type)
200 g fresh or frozen Blueberries
½ cup walnuts
½ cup dried cranberries
Confectioner's sugar to sprinkle top of strudel
extra margarine to baste the dough during cooking

Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Cooking the Apple Fillings:

Peel the apples and remove the seeds, slice into small pieces, place in a casserole and add the sugar, lemon peel and about 2 tablespoons water. Bring to boil and reduce heat to low. Always stir the pieces and cook for about 10 minutes or until the apples are slightly soft. Drain in a colander and let the liquid drip. Add the nutmeg, walnuts, and cranberries, Mix properly and set aside.

Procedures:

1... Mix the flour, salt, water , a bit of lemon zest and margarine into a dough. Knead until it is soft and smooth.

2... Brush with warm water and leave to rest in a preheated casserole, cover for 30 minutes.

3... Roll out the dough on a floured silicone sheet or clean cloth sprinkled with flour, making the dough flat and thin using a rolling pin. Spread breadcrumbs all throughout the flattened dough.

4... Add the prepared apple to the dough. Fold the edges over by 2 cm, rolling the longer side slowly to the other edge ( as you would jelly roll).

5... Brush with liquid margarine and bake on the middle oven rack. Bake for about 50-60 minutes. During the baking, brush 1-2 times with liquid margarine. When done, take out from oven and put on a cake platter and sprinkle with confectioner´s sugar.