Bake it Yourself: Apple Strudel

My grandmother makes the best apple strudel in the world. I can still remember how as kids we would stare into the oven, waiting for it to finally be ready to eat. The whole kitchen was filled with the smell of apples and cinnamon. I met up with Reinhard Hacker from the Café-Konditorei Hacker in Rattenberg and asked him to share with us his recipe for traditional Austrian apple strudel.

Reinhard Hacker shows us how to make traditional apple strudel. Fans of this classic Austrian pastry can sign up for an apple strudel workshop at the Cafe Hacker in Rattenberg – including, of course, a tasting session at the end. © Alpbachtal Tourismus - Gabriele Grießenböck

Ingredients

For the pastry

440g flour

2 small eggs

60g oil

1 pinch of salt

160g lukewarm water

For the filling

1,200g apples (sour)

120g sugar with a pinch of cinnamon

250g breadcrumbs

Melted butter

Handful of raisins

Dash of rum

Instructions

For the pastry, mix the flour, eggs, oil, salt and lukewarm water and knead into a dough. The dough must then rest for at least half an hour. Ideally it is best to prepare the dough the day before and keep it in the fridge overnight.

Take the dough, form both hands into a fist and turn the dough in a circular movement. Keep doing this until it is the right size for your strudel and almost transparent. Then place the dough on a floured tea towel and brush the lower part with melted butter.

For the filling, peel the apples and cut them into small pieces, fry the breadcrumbs in butter and soak the raisins in rum. Mix it all together with sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Then spread the filling onto the dough. The more filling, the better.

Roll the dough together using a tea towel to prevent it sticking to your fingers. Place the apple strudel onto a baking tray. Make sure your press together the dough at each end of the strudel, otherwise it will become very hard during baking and impossible to cut. Brush the strudel with melted butter and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes at 200° and another 30 to 45 minutes at 180°. The apple strudel is ready as soon as some of the juice from the apples runs out of the strudel. The baking time depends on the type of apples used.

Step 2: Stretch out the dough until it is almost transparent. © Alpbachtal Tourismus - Gabriele Grießenböck

Step 3: Lay the dough carefully onto a tea towel sprinkled with flour and brush with melted butter.

Step 4: Mix the sliced apples with sugar, cinnamon, fried breadcrumbs and raisins.

Step 5: Place the filling onto the dough.

Step 6: Roll up the dough using a tea towel and brush with melted butter. Don't forget to press together the ends. This makes it easier to cut.

Step 7: Bake the strudel for 10 minutes at 200°C and then for a further 30 to 45 minutes at 180°C. When you can see juice flowing from the strudel, it is ready to eat.

Bon appétit, or as we say here in Tirol: Mahlzeit!

Step 8: Sprinkle the finished strudel with icing sugar and enjoy!