Apfelstrudel, or Apples the Austrian Way

During the past few weeks, I’ve been drowning in apples. And I’m not the only one – it’s been (and still is) an incredibly good apple season in Finland!

But what to do with these huge amounts of malus domestica? I’ve already pureed several kilos of them, I’ve made Tarte Tatins and other apple pies, and there’s still a lot left!

Then it struck me that I’ve actually never tried to make the iconic Austrian apple dessert, Apfelstrudel, at home. So I did some research and started working! After one not-so-well-succeeded attempt, I found the perfect recipe. My starting point was this one from chefkoch.de.

Note that it’s important NOT to peel the apples. If you do, you end up losing a lot of the taste. You'll need a bit less than 1kg of apples to get 800g of sliced apples.

This recipe yields two strudels, each one enough to feed about 6 people. If you want to make only one strudel, I suggest you make one portion of dough anyway: keep half of it in the fridge, because you the most certainly will want to make another one SOON!

Dough:

• 50g whole-grain spelt or wheat flour


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 2g salt


• 1 egg


• 20g neutral-tasting oil (sunflower, for example)


• 100ml warm water

Filling:

• 800g apples, unpeeled but cores removed, sliced very thin


• 100g butter, divided


• 100g breadcrumbs


• 140g sugar


• 170g raisins


• zest of one organic lemon


• 8g cinnamon

Plus about 300ml neutral-tasting oil for the oil bath (see the recipe)

This is how to do it:

First, prepare the dough. Combine flour and salt in a baking bowl and make a hole in the middle. In another bowl, combine warm water, oil, and the egg. Stir, then pour in the hole. With your hands, work the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. Now follows the weirdest part: fill a small bowl with oil. Work the dough into a ball and place it in the oil. Yes, you read right! Let the dough rest in the oil bath for about 30 minutes and you’ll get the most elastic dough ever!



In the meantime, prepare the filling. Melt 50g butter in a pan. Stir in the breadcrumbs and continue stirring for about 2 minutes, or until the crumbs start gaining some colour. Remove from heat.

Place the apple slices in a bowl. Add the sugar, raisins, cinnamon, grated lemon zest, and the breadcrumb-butter-mixture. Stir until everything is well combined.

Now, take the dough from the oil bath. Remove excess oil and divide the dough into two equal-sized parts. Pat each in a bit of flour. Now follows the second weirdest part: roll the dough out on a kitchen towel into a square, as thin as you can, about 35cm*25cm. Oddly enough, the dough doesn’t stick to the fabric – especially if you sprinkle it with a bit of flour.

Melt the rest of the butter. Brush the rolled dough with about 2/3 of the melted butter. Place the filling on the dough, leaving about 3cm on the sides uncovered and about 5cm at the bottom side. Fold the sides (see the picture). Gently roll your strudel like a Swiss roll – it goes surprisingly easy with the towel!



Transfer your strudel carefully onto a baking tray so that the seam-side faces down (and proceed to make the second strudel). Bake your strudel(s) in a preheated oven (190C) for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Be careful not to let them burn, though; burned raisins taste horribly bitter ;)

Brush the strudel(s) with melted butter once they’re out of the oven. Let cool a bit and sprinkle with (vanilla-flavoured) confectioner’s sugar.

To me, strudel tastes the best when cooled down to room temperature, but I totally understand if you can’t wait that long! Vanilla sauce or ice-cream is a must with Apfelstrudel, of course.

Sourdough Bagels

A bit more than one year ago, I started baking bagels with the recipe from “New York – les recettes culte”. Everyone loved them, and still do. They are everything you’d expect for good bagels to be – delicious and chewy!

Then I got curious: would it be possible to bake perfect bagels without yeast, using only levain instead? And, as usual, the answer is yes! No yeast needed, unless you want the fermentation go faster. (Then just add ½ tsp dry yeast or so.) I used 50% whole grain, 50% all-purpose flour, which I found a perfect compromise between health and pleasure ;) It’s possible to use 100% whole grain, but, well, one would have to get used to it first.

A very significant advantage of this recipe is that the dough doesn’t need to ferment twice – convenient for a lazy baker like myself!

Here’s what you need to make 10 mouth-watering bagels:

• 300g whole-grain wheat or spelt flour


• 325g all-purpose wheat flour


• 325g water


• 150g sourdough starter


• 10g salt


• 2 Tbsp olive oil


• 2 Tbsp agave syrup (or other liquid sugar)


• 1 Tbsp gluten

And for the poaching:

• 3 liters water


• 1 Tbsp salt


• 1 Tbsp potato starch


• 1,5 Tbsp agave syrup (or other liquid sugar)

And some sesame and/or poppy seeds to decorate

This is how to do it:

Mix all ingredients in a baking bowl. Knead until you get a smooth but strong, chewing-gum-like dough – that takes about 10 minutes, at least if kneading by hand like I do.

Let the dough (and your poor hands!) get 10 minutes of rest before going to the next step!

Now divide the dough into 10 parts, each weighing about 110g. Form a smooth ball out of each, then make a hole in the middle. This, by the way, is the unorthodox way of making a bagel: actually, you should roll each piece in a long snake-like-form, then close the ends to form a circle. I’ve tried that method as well, but for me it just doesn’t work!

Place the bagels-to-be on a baking tray covered with a baking sheet. Dust them with a bit of flour, cover with a cling film and let ferment in room temperature for about 4 hours or in the fridge overnight.

Then it’s time to turn your oven on (225 C) and boil the poaching water in a large saucepan. Mix the starch with 100ml of cold water and add it to the poaching water, mixing with a spiral whisk so that the starch doesn’t go clumpy! Then add salt and syrup. Poach your bagels for about 30 seconds from both sides, remove with a skimmer, and place back on the oven tray.

Sprinkle with seeds – my favourite ones are black and white sesame seeds and poppy seeds.

Bake your bagels until they are golden brown, or about 20-25 minutes. Let cool on a rack before serving them!

P.S. Note that the amount of water you need for the dough depends on the flour you use: my whole-grain flour is very “thirsty”, that is: it needs more water. So I'd advise you to start the dough with a bit less water and add more if needed.