Apple Strudel with home made pastry Recipe

November 05, 2021 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, baked dish, baking, breakfast, Central European recipes, dessert, Eastern European recipes, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Mitteleuropean recipes, pudding, recipe from Northern Ital, Rustic dish, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, sweet course, Sweet Things

Apple strudel is a traditional Viennese dessert, made of very thin elastic pastry, and the filling contains sliced apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins (soaked in dark rum), lemon zest, lemon juice and bread crumbs. This popular pastry can also be found in the rest of Austria, Bavaria, Czech Republic, Northern Italy, and in many other countries in Europe that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It is believed that strudel originated from baklava, a very famous Turkish pastry based dessert, that came to Austria with the Ottoman's Empire and through Hungarian cuisine.

Records show that Strudel was first named in 1696 and gained popularity after it was served to Empress Maria Theresia who was the ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the only women to hold the position.

In Slovenia and in coastal Istria, areas that also once belonged to Austro-Hungarian Empire, apple strudel became, and today still is, a very well known sweet treat. It has gained such a high level of popularity that it is almost considered a national dessert. During autumn and winter months, this typical and very much loved dessert would be baked on a regular basis up and down the country, with little variations, and no Sunday roast lunch could be completed without a slice of strudel, dusted, of course, with a generous amount of icing sugar. When this task was left for us children, there would be so much icing sugar on the top that you could hardly see what type of dessert was hiding underneath it. Some things just never change...this is what happens when I leave my 11 year old son with the icing sugar task!

Apple strudel in Slovenia is called Jabolčni štrudelj or Jabolčni zavitek while along the coast of Northwest Istria, where the informal Istrian dialect is also spoken, it can be referred to as Strucolo de pomi.

Strudel made with apples is by far the most popular but in the North Adriatic two variations of strudel have been created and are also very well liked, strudel filled with ricotta cheese filling (or curd cheese) and strudel with cherries.

In my family we all knew when it was weekend, as apple strudel, this warming autumnal pudding, would be in the oven, and the aromas of apples and cinnamon would travel around the house. This dessert is not just part of my childhood but part of my adulthood as well. It has been the most frequently baked dessert by my mum and even today my friends and family cannot get enough of it. Now that I live abroad it is even more special, and it really does take me right back home to my childhood, and my mum's kitchen.

Apple strudel is traditionally served warm, dusted with regular icing sugar or vanilla floured icing sugar, and when accompanied with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce, this rustic pudding soon turns into a complete and very elegant dessert.

This recipe for apple strudel is made with home made pastry, however you can still indulge yourself and cut corners a bit by using a store bought ready made puff pastry, in which case only half the amount of apple filling is enough

Apples can be sliced or coarsely grated and lightly toasted walnuts can replace pine kernels.

In this recipe I will indicate which apples are appropriate to use for apple strudel, however, I have never used specific type of apples and that is simply because I always bake apple strudel when apples are in season and abundant in nature. Apples would be generously given from neighbours and friends with fruit orchards or apple trees in their gardens, I just make sure I taste them and pick a mixture of sweet and tart apples.

Ingredients

Serves 10-12

Dough

250g all purpose flour or bread flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp neutral tasting vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
sea salt, a pinch
50ml-60ml lukewarm water, or as needed

Apple Filling

1kg apples, peeled, cored, quartered and sliced (sweet-tart apples like MacIntosh and Gala in combination) Bramley
1 unwaxed lemon, grated zest and juice (grate lemon zest first and then squeeze the lemon juice, trying to do it the other way round might prove a tricky task)
1 Tsp ground cinnamon
30g pine nut kernels, slightly toasted (can use walnuts)
50g raisins or sultanas
3 Tbsp dark rum or lukewarm water (for soaking the raisins)
60g dry fine breadcrumbs
20g unsalted butter plus extra for brushing
80g caster sugar
icing sugar for dusting

Method

To make the dough

Place the flour in a big mixing bowl and make a well.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix slightly beaten egg, oil, vinegar or lemon juice, (the acidity will help to relax gluten in the flour making the dough more stretchy) a pinch of sea salt and lukewarm water. Pour the mixture into a flour well.

With the fork, stir the mixture with the flour until well combined. Add a little bit of flour at a time, until the dough comes nicely together, then work the dough with your hands.

Transfer the dough on a lightly floured working surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until nice and smooth.

After this time, the dough should be moist and elastic and not sticky. Add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky to knead.

In order to further encourage the development of the gluten, resulting in a very elastic dough, slam the dough onto the working surface a few times.

Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in a clean bowl, previously brushed with oil.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough rest for about 1 hour at room temperature.

To make the filling

In a small pan, place pine nuts and toast them on a medium-low heat for a few minutes until golden-light brown in colour. Remove from the heat, cool and set aside.

In another pan melt the butter over medium-low heat. When the butter is melted add breadcrumbs, toast them, stirring constantly until golden-brown in colour. Remove from the heat, cool and set aside.

In a small bowl, place raisins or sultanas, add dark rum (traditionally used) or lukewarm water. Leave them to soak and plump up for at least 15 minutes, or until you need them.

Peel, core, quarter and slice the apples. Place sliced apples in a bowl, pour lemon juice over them, toss and mix well. The lemon juice will prevent apples from oxygenating and turning brown.

Add lemon zest, roasted pine nuts, breadcrumbs mixture, soaked raisins or sultanas (squeeze out excess rum or water), sugar and cinnamon. Mix well to incorporate all the ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 200C static or equivalent.

Place the dough on a clean and lightly floured table cloth. Flour the rolling pin and start rolling out the dough. While rolling, to prevent sticking, flour the dough and the surface every now and then.

When the dough reaches about 20 cm in diameter pick it up and keep stretching it. The best way to do so is to use the back of your hands and in particular the knuckles but make sure you remove any sharp jewellery first.

When the dough becomes difficult to handle as it becomes bigger and thinner, place it on a lightly floured tablecloth.

With your hands (tip of the fingers) keep stretching gently the dough on the tablecloth to paper thin consistency, from the inside to the outside working your way round the sheet of dough.

Keep stretching until the sheet of dough starts to look almost translucent and you will be able to see a pattern of your tablecloth through it.

You should end up with a thin sheet of dough stretched more or less into a rectangular shape with a diameter of approximately 40 cm which will fit into a standard 40 cm baking tray.

If you notice that the edges are still a bit thick, stretch them further very gently or cut them off. If you leave the edged thick, when rolling the strudel, they will form quite a thick layer at the very centre of the strudel risking to remain slightly underbaked.

Place and spoon evenly the apple mixture over one half of the dough sheet leaving about 2-3cm to the edge.

Fold in the side ends of the sheet to prevent filling coming out during rolling. Using the tablecloth to help you, roll the dough all the way and place the rolled strudel very gently on a baking tray previously lined with baking parchment, seam side down.

Brush it with a bit of melted butter.

Bake on the middle shelf for 40 45 min.

Apple Strudel is ready when the crust turns nice and golden.

Take it out of the oven, let it cool. Dust it with icing sugar, cut into slices and serve it on its own or with vanilla ice cream or cream.

Just a thought

You can make the strudel dough ahead and keep it refrigerated for up to two days. Before using the dough take it out of the fridge allowing it to come to a room temperature.

Wine suggestion

Alto Adige Gewürztraminer DOC Vendemmia Tardiva "Roen" 2019 - Cantina Tramin (0.375l)

Huzarski krapi (my auntie Irma best celebratory biscuits) recipe

Beans and Sardines

March 23, 2021 by tina oblak in Sweet Things, biscuits, cookies, baking, fancy biscuits

My auntie Irma truly made the best biscuits ever, and this recipe is really special to me, as I have very fond memories of her. She had no children of her own and she simply adored me and my brother.

She would bake this biscuits in huge quantities and deliver them, especially for birthdays or other special occasions that were celebrated in the family and were very popular around festivities like Christmas and Easter. She is no longer around but through this recipe her legacy lives on in our family.

These biscuits are so pretty to look at and absolutely delicious, they just melt in your mouth and the walnut coating around them give you that luxurious crunch.

You can play around a bit with this recipe to suit your taste and make them a bit different every single time you bake them. You can change the type of fruit jam to fill the biscuits with, and for the coating, you can replace walnuts for hazelnuts, almonds or any other type of nuts on their own or any combination you like.

When beautifully arranged and wrapped, these biscuits make a wonderful present for special celebrations or simple and thoughtful pick me up little gift. They will put a smile back on anyone's face. I made them for my husband's birthday, needles to say, it did bring a big smile on his face and he was very happy indeed!

This recipe will make about 12 bigger biscuits.

Ingredients

140g butter (melted)
2 eggs (separated in egg yolks and whites both lightly beaten)
200g all purpose flour
70g caster sugar
150g walnuts (chopped or roughly ground) you can use hazelnuts or almonds (or mix any combination you like)
finely grated lemon zest of ½ lemon (preferably unwaxed)
smooth apricot jam (or other flavour of your preference)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C static and lay the baking tin with baking parchment.

In a large mixing bowl put the flour, sugar, egg yolks, butter and lemon zest. With the spatula or wooden spoon mix well to combine all the ingredients. Then use your hands to gather all the ingredients to get a dough. Shape it into a ball, wrap it in cling film and put in a fridge to chill for about 30min.

After the dough has chilled, start making the biscuits by pinching a bit of a dough (the size of golf ball roughly) and shape it into a small ball. Repeat the process until you use all the dough.

Take a smaller bowl with slightly beaten egg whites and a deeper dish where you put your chopped or roughly ground walnuts.

Dip one dough ball first into egg whites and then into the ground walnuts. Roll it round making sure the whole ball is coated. Repeat the process until all the dough balls are being coated.

Place the coated biscuits into a baking tray and press them down slightly with your hands to get a more disc shape but do not flatten them too much.

With the back of the handle of the wooden spoon make a hole in each biscuit almost reaching the bottom. Make the holes slightly bigger with gentle circular movement.

Put in the oven and bake for about 10 min or until golden in colour.

Take them out of the oven and let them cool a bit in their tray. When hot, this biscuits are very fragile and will break easily.

When still warm take a tea spoon and fill the holes in the biscuits with apricot jam.

Cool the biscuits completely before removing them from the tray.

Wine suggestion

Picolit 2017 Docg by Dario Coos.

Rustic Fig Jam Crostata (rustic Italian style jam tart) recipe

Beans and Sardines

March 16, 2021 by tina oblak in Sweet Things, Adriatic Recipe, baking, dessert, Easy recipe, pudding, recipe from Northern Ital, Rustic dish

When I was a child, desserts after the main meal were more of a weekend treat, and it is when my mum would bake.

And there is one simple dish she always baked in our household, and that is a jam tart or simply crostata as we call it in Italian. It is made using Italian style sweet shortcrust pastry that is enriched with eggs, which help make the dough even flakier, lemon zest, sugar, and baking powder. It is still very popular to bake at home and easily available in bakery shop and supermarkets.

My mum would use different fruit jams that she made using a variety of fruits in the season from our orchard or fruit given by friends or neighbours. Most commonly used type of jam to fill the crostata with would be the apricot jam. Crostata can be also filled with ricotta, Nutella, pastry cream and fresh fruit.

This year we had a brilliant year for figs and they were in abundance in my grandma's back garden. Most were eaten just picked directly from the tree, how luxurious. But there were just so many figs and since nothing gets ever wasted, we made a lot of jam!

There is something so comforting and homely about jam crostata, with a delicate flake crust, filled with your favourite choice of jam. Simply delicious, just melts into your mouth, and most importantly, it is easy to make, and the aroma during the baking is unmistakable.

Crostata is also great for colder days, as a dessert or snack, and is commonly served for breakfast too.

Nice accompanied with cream, vanilla ice-cream or natural Greek yogurt, just to tone down a bit the sweetness of the the fig jam.

Ingredients

250g all purpose flour
105g diced butter, room temperature
1 egg and 1 egg yolk (slightly beaten), keep the egg white for brushing the crostata just before putting it in the oven for baking
50g caster sugar (optional if you use fig jam as it is quite sweet already)
lemon zest of one small unwaxed lemon, finely grated
1 Tsp of liquor like grappa or rum ( I used rum)
¼ Tsp baking powder
jar of fig jam or any other jam of your choice, home made or a good quality one from the food store

Method

To make the pastry, measure the flour into a large bowl and add the butter.

Using just your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre of the flour, then add the sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, liquor, and baking powder. First stir gently with the fork to combine all the ingredients and for the mixture to come together.

Gently gather the dough together with your hands and transfer it onto a floured work surface.

Gently press the dough, without kneading it, until it comes together to form a firm ball.

Press the dough into a flat disc, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for about 30min.

Preheat the oven to 180C static or equivalent.

Lightly flour the surface and the rolling pin. Take about 2/3 of the pastry and with the rolling pin roll it out on a surface, then roll the pastry back over the rolling pin, so it is hanging, and ease it into the 23cm loose bottom non stick flan tin.

Press the pastry shell into the side of the tin.

Allow the excess to hang over the side and roll the rolling pin over the top of the flan tin, to cut off the excess pastry.