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.
Difficuly rating: intermediate
Preparation time: 50 minutes
Portions: 1 strudel
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.
Bon appétit, or as we say here in Tirol: Mahlzeit!
The Café-Konditorei Hacker is located in the centre of Rattenberg. It was founded in 1774 and has established itself as one of the most popular spots for locals and tourists alike in what is officially Austria's smallest town.