Pumpkin strudel with apples and crumbled amaretti, fragrant and delicious, delicately spiced, to enjoy with a cup of hot tea, an herbal tea, or as a warm dessert accompanied by good vanilla ice cream or Buontalenti cream (if you don’t know it, I’ll tell you about it in the curiosities below) is a delicious original dessert: rustic, crunchy on the outside, and with a soft and creamy heart. If you’ve never tried pumpkin strudel, you have to catch up immediately!
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 4People
- Cooking methods: Stove, Oven, Electric Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 1 sheet rectangular puff pastry
- 3 Golden apples
- 6 oz pumpkin pulp (cooked)
- 2 tbsp acacia honey
- 2.1 oz dry amaretti
- 0.4 oz cornstarch
- 1 egg yolk
- to taste cinnamon
- to taste powdered sugar
Tools
- 1 Peeler
- 1 Knife
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Shallow Casserole
- 1 Food Chopper
- 1 Pastry Brush
Steps
Peel the apples, remove the core, and cut them into cubes. Transfer them to a bowl, add honey and cinnamon, then cook them in a pan over medium-low heat. When the apples start to break down, mash them with a fork. Add the pumpkin pulp and continue cooking, letting them dry. Dissolve the cornstarch in 2/3 tablespoons of water to obtain a smooth cream. Add it to the apples and cook for a few more minutes, stirring occasionally: you should obtain a soft but dense fruit cream. Once ready, let it cool. Unroll the puff pastry and prick it with a fork, then sprinkle it with the crumbled amaretti using the chopper. Arrange the pumpkin and apple puree on the puff pastry lengthwise. Close the strudel and keep the seam at the top. Brush with the yolk and bake in a preheated oven at 340°F (170°C) for about forty minutes. Let it cool slightly and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Curiosities
It is said that the first in the world to produce ice cream were the Florentines in the 16th century. The story is beautiful but dressed in legend. And we like stories. We like to think that it went exactly as told. The Buontalenti, Bernardo Timante Buonacorsi known as Buontalenti because of his many talents (talents, of good talent) was an architect, painter, sculptor, military engineer, set designer, ceramist, and goldsmith at the Medici court. Around the mid-1500s, Cosimo I de’ Medici entrusted him with organizing the celebrations for the arrival of the Spanish delegation. The aim was to seek the support of the King of Spain to help Cosimo in his intention to annex Siena to the Grand Duchy. And so Buontalenti got to work organizing a program rich in festivities like never seen before. The banquets? Needless to say, they were sumptuous. At the end of the meal, this frozen cream (the Florentine cream) was served, to which was added a new spice from America: sugar. The result? The Spanish delegation was won over! But what did the Florentine cream known in Florence as Buontalenti cream taste like? It was a dessert made of zabaione and fruit.
But is that how it really happened? Who knows. It is also said that the first to invent ice cream was a poulterer and passionate cook, Ruggeri, who at a competition among the best Tuscan chefs dedicated to the most singular dish ever seen presented his frozen dessert that immediately conquered everyone. Caterina de’ Medici, wife of the king of France, took Ruggeri with her but soon due to his skill, Ruggeri attracted the hatred of the French chefs. So he decided to leave the recipe to the queen and return to his chickens. The court pastry chefs got to work, and the famous ice cream served as a dessert at banquets spread throughout Europe thanks to the royals who returned home with the recipe in their pocket.
And today what is the Florentine cream or Buontalenti cream like? Cream, milk, sugar, and eggs, but the recipe includes fewer yolks than the classic cream, making the Buontalenti delicate and pleasant on the palate.
And that’s not all because then Galileo Galilei arrived discovering that adding salt to ice brought its temperature below zero, and ice cream changed. But that’s another story.
Notes
Source of the recipe Easy with Taste October 2024.
