Strudel

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).

Gary Solomon is the owner of The Kitchen Cupboard. One of the Kitchen Cupboard's specialties are their delicious cookies and rugelach. Visit Delicious Cookies to see for yourself! Online ordering is available. Or email Gary for further information. Gary is also the Food & Drink Editor of Why Men Are Online Magazine