Dessert a gala affair
FOR young pastry chefs keen to make their mark in the world, few recipes are as challenging or definitive as authentic strudel.
Transforming this dish from an idea to a reality requires a high degree of synthesis between ambition and concentration.
It is, after all, one of the more technical dishes in a chef’s library.
The dish’s origins lie in the paperthin filo pastry of Ottoman Turkey, brought to Europe with the visiting armies of Suleiman the Magnificent in the mid-16th century and left more than a century-and-a-half later.
Filo, which was the mainstay of classic Turkish dishes such as baklava, is engineered to use the stretchability of highly glutinous flour to make sheets so thin that one could read a newspaper through them. And yes, this is an odd analogy for time that predates the printing press.
The key distinction between filo and strudel doughs lies in the water content, which makes strudel both easier to work with, and more resilient to juicy fillings when baked.
Making strudel with filo, for example, will inevitably result in a soft and limp dessert in place of the crisp and succulent pastry one might anticipate.
And while making strudel dough by hand is not an excessively difficult task, few cooks, even talented ones, are likely to entertain that idea. It is, after all, just that little too much.
Thankfully, there is one simple trick that allows us to use the storebought filo to great results.
A small scattering of cake crumbs or breadcrumbs between the layers is precisely sufficient to absorb fruit juices and permit the pastry to become and stay deliciously crisp.
SUPER-EASY GALA APPLE STRUDEL SERVES: 10
Ingredients
4 cups day-old sponge cake
½ cup raw sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg 6 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into thin wedges
½ cup caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp plain flour
12 sheets filo pastry
125g unsalted butter, melted
Method
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Place the cake, raw sugar and spices in a food processor and pulse until crumbs form.
2. Toss the apples with caster sugar, vanilla and flour. Brush a sheet of pastry with butter, then place a second sheet on top. Repeat with another sheet, then scatter with 1 tbsp cake crumbs. Repeat with the remaining pastry sheets, then scatter the remaining cake crumbs on top.
3. Arrange the apple pieces in a line along the near edge, fold in the sides, then roll up. Brush with butter, arrange on a lined oven tray, then bake for 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is golden and crisp.