Wiener Apfelstrudel
(Vienna Apple Strudel)

Vienna Apple Strudel

For the baking tray;

• A little bit of oil

For the Strudelpastry:

• 200 g of wheat flour

• 1 pinch of salt

• 75 ml of lukewarm water

• 50 g of melted butter, margarine or 3 tbsp. of oil

For the filling:

• 1.5 kg of Payne's Orchards Apples
  (Mix of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious, or only Granny Smith)

• 75 g of Butter or Margarine

• 50 g of breadcrumbs or cornflakes

• 50 g sultanas

• 100 g sugar

• 50 g blanched almonds

• Zest of a lemon

• Some drops of vanilla essence

• A dash of rum, if you have any (I did this one without it)

For the pastry:

Sieve flour and add remaining ingredients into bowl
Mix briefly using a dough hook on high setting.
Heat water in a small pot to boiling point, drain pot, then dry and rest pastry on baking paper in this pot with lid on for 30 minutes.

For the filling:

Wash apples, peel, quarter, core and cut into small wedges.
Add the juice of the lemon to prevent the apple from browning.
Mix with all ingredients, other than the butter, oil.
 

For the pastry:

Roll out pastry on a floured tea towel, to a 50 x 70 cm rectangle.
The pastry will be soft and sticky - often one uses the knuckles of the hands to stretch the pastry further.
Keep the tea towel covered in ample flour or the pastry will stick to the towel and will tear.
It will need to be paper thin - you should see the print of the tea towel through the pastry 😊
 

Assembly:

Now comes the most difficult part….

Pile the filling onto the pastry in an even layer, without piling up on the edges. It will look like an insane amount of filling.
Fold in the east/ west edges (the shorter edges) - then start rolling up from north to south, or longer edges (to form the tube).
Use the tea towel to assist with the rolling since the pastry will tear with any jerking movement 😊

Brush with some of the fat or oil.

Very gently place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake in a pre-heated oven on 180 C for 50 minutes but brush more fat or oil on it after 30 minutes.

After baking, let it cool down on a baking rack before serving with Vanilla Sauce, Ice-cream, etc.

Vienna Apple Strudel needs to be eaten on the day, or frozen and re-heated.