Our friend Marie Rocheford
has fond memories of her mother Julie, making homemade strudel dough.
" She made it on her
own strudel table cloth," said Marie. "It was a flaky
dough almost transparent. Similar to a phyllo dough".
The three traditional
fillings that were used were apple, cherry and cheese.
These are warm juicy fruit fillings enfolded in a crispy leaf pastry.
The strudel is rolled and baked until golden. The crescent
shaped strudel is then cooled and then sliced on the
diagonal.
Marie's homemade strudel
incorporates store bought frozen puff pastry. Although not
traditional strudel dough, you will find that it saves many hours of
preparation time. This recipe is more a puff pastry filled
with apple and cheese.
Remember to keep your
dough as chilled as you can. Since the flaky dough is
layered with butter you need to work fast to keep the butter
from melting through the layers of dough, which may lessen
the flakiness of the final product.
Ingredients:
Pepperidge Farm Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets-1 sheet.
Macintosh Apples-2 cored and sliced into 1/4 inch slices.
Brown Sugar- 1/4 cup.
Granulated Sugar- 1/2 cup.
Cinnamon- 1/2 tablespoon.
All Purpose Flour-1-tablespoon.
Whipped Cream Cheese-4 oz.
Creamy Cottage Cheese (on the dry side)-4 oz..
Pure Vanilla Extract- 1/8 teaspoon. Sweet Butter- 1/2 stick
melted, slightly cooled.
Instructions: Combine
the apple slices, brown sugar, 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar and
cinnamon in to a large mixing bowl. Let this mixture rest
for 30 minutes and then drain with a colander.
Transfer the apples back
to a bowl. Add the flour to the apple mixture and gently mix.
The apple mixture should still have some juice but only a small
amount. Set aside. Now in a separate bowl prepare the
cheese filling mixture. Combine the whipped cream cheese,
cottage cheese, vanilla and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Mix
thoroughly. Set aside.
Dust a large cutting
board with some sugar and roll out the puff pastry. Roll until
you have doubled the size keeping the shape rectangular. Brush
the dough with some melted butter. Then smear the cheese filling
over the puff pastry leaving a 1/2 inch boarder around all the edges.
Sprinkle about 1/8 cup sugar over the cheese filling.
Now evenly distribute the apple slices over the cheese filling.
Drizzle a little butter over the fillings.
Start rolling the puff
pastry away from you. Do not tear or crack the dough.
Intermittently tuck in the edges of the dough and then continue
rolling until 2 inches from the end. Brush the top of the
roll with some butter and then gently bring the last 2 inch flap
of puff pastry over the roll. Pinch slightly to seal the edge.
Carefully place the rolled dough into a buttered aluminum baking
pan and shape into a large crescent. Brush some egg white on
the top and sprinkle a little sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for
about 50 minutes.
Serve with ice cream
or whipped cream (schlag in German).
