Apfelstrudel

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Apfelstrudel

Apfelstrudel ("Apple strudel") is a traditional pastry of southern Germany and many countries that once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire (Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, etc.), and is the most widely known kind of strudel.

Apfelstrudel consists of an oblong strudel pastry jacket with a filling of chopped apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and bread crumbs. Rum is sometimes used to add flavour. Other ingredients include pine nuts, walnuts, or slivered almonds. The art of preparation is in making the pastry very thin and elastic; it is said that a single layer should be so thin that one could read a newspaper through it.

The filled Apfelstrudel is baked in an oven and can be served warm, usually sprinkled with powdered sugar. The preferred traditional way to serve it is while the strudel is still warm, adding sugar to taste, though vanilla ice cream and whipped cream are also very popular. Another good way to eat Apfelstrudel is to drizzle vanilla sauce over the top of the dish. The recipe for this sauce can be found in various places in cookbooks and online.

To bake a juicy Apfelstrudel, the apples chosen should be good cooking apples and tart, crisp, and aromatic.