Easy Apple Strudel Recipe
A delicate apple strudel is a thing of beauty, but homemade strudel dough can be a challenge. By using store-bought phyllo pastry, you’ll soon have the perfect apple strudel in a fraction of the time.
Using store-bought phyllo dough puts this classic Viennese dessert within the reach of any home cook.
Photo Credit : Amy TraversoWhen apple season rolls around, we’ll happily tuck into hearty apple crisps, pies, and dumplings. And then there’s the delicate apple strudel, a thing of beauty that’s also surprisingly simple to make. The trick is to replace homemade dough with store-bought phyllo pastry. With that, apple strudel becomes the stuff of everyday baking. This easy apple strudel recipe makes two strudels, which will easily feed six people.
A few notes about working with the phyllo dough: First, you’ll find it at most supermarkets in the frozen foods aisle, and it will need at least two hours to defrost at room temperature (you can also let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator). Second, thawed phyllo can dry out and become brittle, so you’ll need to keep it covered. We like to lay the sheets of dough on a piece of parchment paper, then press a sheet of plastic wrap over them. Finally, phyllo dough generally comes in 14-by-18-inch sheets, so you’ll need to trim these to the recipe’s desired 14-by-10-inch sheets using a sharp knife and a ruler.
Yield:
2 strudels, 6 servings per strudelIngredients
1¾ pound firm-tart apples (about 4 medium apples), such as Northern Spy, Granny Smith, or Rome, peeled, cored and cut into ⅓-inch-thick slices
¼ cup granulated sugar
Juice of ½ small lemon
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons apple cider
3 tablespoons golden raisins
1½ tablespoons panko bread crumbs
12 sheets phyllo dough, trimmed to 14-by-10-inch rectangles
6 tablespoons salted butter, melted
Powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
In a large Dutch oven set over medium heat, stir together the apples, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. Let the mixture heat until the juices begin to simmer, then cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch into cider; add this to apple mixture. Bring to a simmer and cook until mixture thickens, then remove from heat. Stir in raisins and panko bread crumbs, then transfer to a new bowl and refrigerate, uncovered, until mixture is just slightly warmer than room temperature, about 30 minutes.
When apples are almost cooled, preheat oven to 375° and set a rack to the middle position. Spray a rimmed baking sheet with vegetable oil spray and set aside.
Lay large sheet of parchment paper on your counter, oriented horizontally so that you have a long bottom edge near you, a long top edge, and two shorter “sides.” Set your stack of phyllo sheets nearby and cover with plastic wrap.
Place a sheet of phyllo on the parchment, also oriented horizontally with the long bottom edge near you. Gently brush with the melted butter. Lay a second sheet of phyllo over that, brush with butter, and repeat with four more phyllo sheets and butter. This is the base of your first strudel.
Take the cooled filling and arrange half of it in a horizontal band down the center of the dough, leaving the outer 2 inches of each side free of filling. Now use the parchment to help you fold those sides up over the filling, as if you’re making a burrito: Fold the top edge down over the filling, then fold the bottom edge up. Transfer the strudel, seam side down, to your prepared baking sheet.
Prepare the second strudel the same way, using the remaining phyllo sheets, butter, and apple filling.
Brush the top of each strudel lightly with any butter left in the bowl, and transfer to the oven. Bake until golden and puffed, about 30 minutes, then remove and let cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes. Slice each strudel into thirds and serve warm or at room temperature. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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