Last week during our Oktoberfest party I made apple strudel for the first time! I looked far and wide for an authentic German/Austrian apfelstrudel recipe. I felt like this recipe was really authentic! It was also really pretty easy to make – because I cheated and used frozen puff pastry dough as my strudel dough. Making strudel dough from scratch is labor intensive.
Easy Traditional Apple Strudel – Printable recipe here
makes 2 loaves, serving 10-14 people
- 2 tablespoons apple juice or golden rum
- 3 tablespoons raisins
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted.
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
- 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
- 2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
- 1/2 cup (60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
- 2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch thick slices (recommend granny smith and honey crisp varieties)
- powdered sugar, for dusting
- 1 egg with 1 tbsp water, for egg wash
Directions:
- Mix the apple juice or rum in a bowl with the raisins and set aside.
- In another bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon, set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt 3 tbsp of butter in the skillet. Then add the breadcrumbs. Stir constantly until golden and toasted. Takes approximately 3 minutes. Let cool completely.
- While bread crumbs are cooling, chop up the apples.
- With a rolling pin, roll out each piece of thawed puff pastry dough on a floured surface to approximately 10×12 inches. You will be making 2 logs of strudel total.
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- With the remaining melted butter, brush the melted butter over the entire pastry dough. Then, sprinkle the cooled toasted bread crumbs over the entire buttered puff pastry sheet in a thin layer. Repeat for second dough sheet.
- Spread half of the walnuts in a line about 3 inches back from the edge of the dough. Repeat with other pastry dough sheet.
- Now add the cinnamon sugar mixture, and raisin mixture to the cut apples. Stir together. Now you will immediately spread half of the apple mixture over the walnuts in a line. Repeat for the second strudel dough. NOTE: make sure your apple mixture doesn’t have any liquid in it when you pour it over the strudel. If you leave the apples with the sugar for a while, they will ooze out liquid. The liquid will make it harder to roll the strudel.
- Now, slowly roll the dough lifting the front side to first cover the apples. Roll until it is a log shape. The seam side should be on the bottom of the log. Tuck the two ends of the log under the strudel by pinching the dough together.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat, seam side down.
- Brush with the egg wash.
- Make several cuts across the top to allow the steam to escape.
- Bake at 375F for 40-45 minutes, until crust is golden brown.
- One cool, dust with powdered sugar and serve. Serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or homemade cinnamon ice cream (recipe click here)! It is best served warm on the first day of baking!
Below are the two strudels getting ready to go into the oven!
43 minutes later…. voila! It is now a nicely golden brown in color! Smells amazing, too!
Once the strudel has cooled to when it is slightly warm, sprinkle powdered sugar on top!
I like to eat mine with ice cream!
I thought this recipe tasted exactly like the strudel I ate in Germany. Which means.. it isn’t overly sweet. If you love sweet desserts, I would recommend adding a bit more sugar to it. Traditional strudel isn’t super sweet like American apple pie. Or, you could always just sprinkle more powdered sugar on top. I think serving it with whipped cream or ice cream is essential. Also, it tastes better served warm. If your strudel cooled down to room temp, I would recommend just heating it up either in the oven or microwave.
