SUNDAY WITH MARLENA - STRUDEL

I was blown away at the taste of this Strudel. It took me totally by surprise. I'm not a big apple pie fan, I mean I like it but it wouldn't be my first choice of pies. This was a WOW. Tianna (my granddaughter) came in and cut herself a slice and while I was outside talking to her mother she runs out of the house yelling "this is good!! This really good Grandma!" then proceeds to shove a piece into her mother's mouth. I think she came in and ate a couple more pieces of the Strudel.
It's a fairly easy recipe but it takes a little work to get the dough right.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
makes 3 Studels

For the filling:

2-3 cooking apples
4Tbsp golden raisins
3Tsp light brown sugar
1C course chopped walnuts (optional)
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
4Tbsp Apricot jam

Core and chop the apples (do not peel) in a small dice. Put apples into a bow and mix in the raisins, sugar, walnuts (if using) cinnamon and apricot jam. Mix well and set aside.

For the dough:
1 Cup softened butter
1C sour cream
2Tbsp sugar
1Tbsp vanilla
large pinch of salt
21/4C all purpose flour plus more to get the dough the right consistency

Cream the butter until fluffy then mix in the sour cream, sugar,vanilla, salt and flour. The dough will be very soft. I tried refrigerating the dough but it didn't make it any easier to work with. Divide the dough into 3 pieces. On a piece of wax or parchment paper 12X 18" roll out the dough as close to that size as possible.
The dough will be thin. Spread 1/3 of the apple mixture over the dough leaving a 1-2" border around. Roll the pastry using the paper to help roll the strudel and place seam side down on a non stick baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling. Bake for 25-30 min. or until golden brown. After the strudels cool, dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Now..as I said the dough is very very soft, and no I can't roll our a very good rectangle.This was the first result, the dough was so soft by the time I rolled it off the parchment it all fell apart. So, I put about a cup of flour on the board and kneaded the dough, kneading in a little flour at a time until the dough was still soft but workable. I took a little piece of dough and rolled it out to make a patch.
I doesn't look pretty but it worked. Since the dough was more workable the other two Strudels came out much better, more like they are supposed to look.I should have brushed it with egg wash before baking but midway through baking I did brush the tops with melted butter to better help the strudel brown.
The strudel I patched, kind of looks like a big blob but it still tasted good.



Especially good with vanilla ice cream.

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