Viennoisserie
I’m closing my eyes and dreaming about strudel in Vienna where I remember it paraded in show windows of Viennoisseries. It’s idyllic and like a romantic love story to me – a flaky pastry crust dusted with snow white powdered sugar served with a side of heavenly schlag. Strudel is particularly popular in Austria. Literally it translates to “whirlpool” -- it is a type of pastry made of many layers.
(fresh baked apple strudel with it's crunchy layers)
Hand Crafted Pastry Art
Authentic strudel making requires hand pulling the dough somewhat similar to a pizzaiolo who throws his pizza dough into the air. Hand-pulling the strudel makes it a labor of love and eating it a visual experience. I stretch the dough out over a long table with flour on an apron. My strudel is brushed with butter for flavor and sprinkled with nuts before it is baked to a golden-brown color in the oven.
Strudel Variations
I stuff strudel with many fillings such as apricot/lemon verbena, Bartlett pear/chocolate chips – the variations are endless. I even make savory strudels such as forest
mushroom/polenta and roasted Mangalitsa pork and fingerling potato, but apple strudel might be the most famous. One of the nice things about being in NY, the apple state,
is the great local variety of apples which I wholeheartedly embrace in my apple strudel recipe. Using different kinds of apples creates a symphony and harmony of tastes.
When Chefs Make Music
Austrians are quite passionate about schlag known as “whipped cream” in the US (in German it means to whip). It’s traditionally served with pastries such as strudel or Sacher torte (a specialty chocolate cake with a layer of apricot preserve in between). One fond memory stays with me to this day. A chef friend made schlag in a bronze colored copper bowl in front of an audience whipping away in the rhythm of waltz music until the cream formed stiff peaks to a delighted audience – like I said it’s a big deal there. And for some reason Americans love to say the word “schlag” – every time a server in my restaurant explains a dessert with schlag they always leave the table shaking their heads with a smile because the guests are repeating the word again and again and laughing. Who knows … but it tastes sooo…good. Many guests ask “can I just order a bowl of schlag?”
(Apple strudel with schlag)
Schlag & Coffee: Vienna has a far-reaching coffee house culture. Artists, intellectuals and scholars like Sigmund Freud would join for hours in the Kaffe Haus, read the journal, debate, smoke and drink coffee in these beautiful Art Decco styled rooms with soaring ceilings. Their coffee served on silver trays with a small glass water from surly waiters -- coffee was and still is a culture in Vienna, not just a drink. There are various coffee drinks which have interesting names like Fiaker (Viennese/German for horse carriage) which is coffee with rum and whipped cream floating on top of it or Eiskaffee meaning coffee with vanilla ice cream and topped with a generous portion of schlag. A nice rich coffee makes an excellent accompaniment to a crispy flaky apple strudel known in Vienna as Apfel Strudel.
Strudel Recipe
(Makes 2 strudels, serving 6-8 each)
Strudel Dough
(Makes enough for 2 strudels)
2 cups and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 pinches salt such as Kosher salt
1/2 cup water (at room temperature)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as canola or grape seed
1. Combine flour, salt, and water in the bowl of an electric kitchen mixer (fitted with the dough hook attachment) then mix on high speed (3 to 5 minutes) then add oil and continue to mix (2 minutes or until all ingredients are combined and form a dough).
2. Lightly dust a flat kitchen surface such as a kitchen counter or a table with flour. Transfer dough to the counter and divide into two equal sized pieces. Roll each piece, pressing it gently with both hands, into a circular motion to shape it into a ball. Cover shaped dough pieces with two bowls and let rest (30 minutes).
Strudel Filling
(yields enough for 2 strudels)
6-8 mixed apples, such as Granny Smith, Jonathan, and Golden Delicious, peeled, cored, and cut into ½ inch dices (about 8 cups total)
1 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon light rum, such as Bacardi
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as canola or grape seed
1. Toss apples, sugar, cinnamon, and rum in a large bowl.
2. In a skillet (9-inch diameter) heat oil (1 tablespoon) over medium heat setting then add half of apples and cook (4 to 6 minutes or until they have browned - this will evaporate the natural apple juice and results in a crispier strudel).
3. Transfer apples to a reusable plastic container such as a Tupperware container and cover (this will steam cooked apples a bit).
4. Repeat with second batch of apples then cool to room temperature.
Making the Strudel
½ cup all-purpose flour, for dusting the table and tablecloth
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted for brushing strudel dough
1 cup finely ground blanched almonds
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Brush a baking sheet with butter.
3. Cover surface or table with a tablecloth (I use a 24x24-inch sized table). The cloth should hang over the sides of the table by at least 2 inches.
4. Dust tablecloth with flour then put the strudel dough (1 ball) on it. Dust dough with flour and roll it out until it forms a square (15x15-inch about 1/8-inch thick).
5. Dust the back of your hands with flour, and place the rolled out dough over them. Gently stretch dough by pulling it with one hand while the other stays still. Give the dough a quarter turn and stretch it again. Continue gently stretching and turning the dough with your hands until its center becomes very thin (the edges will remain thicker) and the dough reaches about 26 inches. This will give it 2 inches of overhang on each side.
6. Lay the stretched-out dough over the tablecloth covered table, letting the edges hang over the table. Brush stretched dough with melted butter and sprinkle ground almonds over it. Make sure to leave some butter to brush the finished strudel.
7. Spread cooked, cooled apples over the section of the dough closest to you in a mound about as wide as the palm of your hands.
8. Lift the two corners of the table cloth closest to you and pull them over the strudel. The dough will begin covering the apples. Keep rolling the dough over itself by pulling the tablecloth slowly. Continue doing so until all the dough is used up. Tuck the ends of the dough under the strudel and transfer it to the butter brushed baking sheet.
9. Brush rolled strudel with the remaining butter and bake (25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown in color)
10. Cool strudel (10-15 minutes this will make it easier to cut strudel into nice-looking pieces).
Chef’s Note: Some of you might be not familiar with making strudel but in another context it’s very similar to making sushi with sushi mats the technique is the same.
No Wrong Assumptions!
If you are an impassionate baker looking for efficiency over poetry, you can use store bought phyllo pastry sheets. It will be a lot faster in the making and comparable in taste…but certainly not the same!!
