SOUTH TYROL Apple Strudel ORIGINAL recipe with SHORTCRUST pastry
I must be honest, I have always slightly overlooked the Apple Strudel made with South Tyrolean shortcrust pastry, preferring this buttery and biscuit-like version to the lighter and crunchier one with phyllo dough.
Perhaps due to my Ligurian origins where phyllo dough rules, especially in savory preparations, starting from the Torta Pasqualina to the famous Focaccia with Recco Cheese.
Everything changed during my last and recent vacation in Alta Badia, near San Cassiano, where I completely changed my mind. I had the fortune of staying in a Maso where one could feel the love for local products and the culture of food and wine.
I tasted alpine butter, a flavorful and aromatic speck, various wild vegetables, and of course the typical Apple Strudel with shortcrust pastry!
The fundamental difference with the Austrian version is expressed in terms of lightness: the crust of the Italian version is definitely more substantial but decidedly more delicious.
The strudel with shortcrust pastry has a full and rich taste, and the dough pairs perfectly with apples, pine nuts, raisins, and cinnamon, the classic ingredients of strudel, giving a more crumbly texture to this dessert.
Like all traditional sweets, there are many versions of this recipe, the one we will prepare today as many others on my blog originating from South Tyrol were “gifted” to me by a chef I met in San Cassiano and presents a very simple trick that will give your strudel something extra.
The recipe for the Apple Strudel with shortcrust pastry is very simple to prepare: the process is that of the classic shortcrust pastry, even though its texture is more similar to a pâte sablée, soft and buttery, for this reason, once prepared, it is quite sticky and requires a short rest in the refrigerator before being worked.
The filling is the classic one based on apples, raisins, and pine nuts, flavored with cinnamon in addition to the “secret” ingredient that I will explain in the recipe, recommended by the chef.
Are you curious? The only thing I regret is that you cannot smell the aroma wafting through my house right now as I have just baked the Strudel, but there is a solution … prepare it and you will smell it too, besides enjoying this super delicious dessert!
If you love South Tyrolean recipes, also take a look at
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 222.62 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 28.39 (g) of which sugars 13.72 (g)
- Proteins 2.98 (g)
- Fat 11.46 (g) of which saturated 6.05 (g)of which unsaturated 4.88 (g)
- Fibers 1.92 (g)
- Sodium 68.98 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 7 oz butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 40 g egg (whole)
- 16 g egg yolks
- 10 g baking powder
- 1 vanilla beans (the seeds or 1 packet vanilla sugar)
- 2 lemon zest (unsprayed)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 3/4 lbs Golden Delicious apples
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1 tbsp rum (or water to rehydrate raisins)
- 1 3/4 oz cookies (shortbread type macine)
- to taste ground cinnamon (1/2 tsp)
- 1/2 lemon zest (organic)
- 20 g sugar
- to taste powdered sugar
Tools
- Mixer
- Baking Dish
- Rolling Pin
Note before starting
You can prepare the dough either by hand in a bowl or with a mixer or stand mixer. Just remember to take the butter out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before using it because it needs to be soft, and to soak the raisins in warm water or rum to soften them.
Preparation of the shortcrust. Place the softened butter with sugar in a bowl and start mixing until it has a fluffy consistency. Add the flour previously sifted with the baking powder and continue working. Lastly, add the grated lemon zest, the whole egg, the yolk, the vanilla bean seeds, and a pinch of salt.
Work the dough until it is smooth and homogeneous. Don’t worry if it is slightly sticky, this is normal, and precisely for this reason, it needs to rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before being rolled out, wrapped in cling film.
Meanwhile, let’s take care of the filling. Peel the apples, remove the core, and cut them into chunks of about 1 cm. Put the apples in a bowl along with the brown sugar, drained raisins, pine nuts, lemon zest, a dusting of cinnamon, and crumbled shortbread biscuits (this is the trick instead of bread crumbs which I guarantee will make the difference). Mix the mixture and blend all the ingredients.
After the resting time, take the dough out of the fridge, work it a few seconds to make it more pliable, then place it on a sheet of parchment paper lightly dusted with flour and roll it with a rolling pin to form a rectangle of about 14×10 inches. For the rectangle dimensions, you can also estimate it by eye, the important thing is that the dough thickness is about 1/8 inch.
Transfer the rectangle of shortcrust with the parchment paper underneath to the baking tray before filling it, this will prevent breaking once ready as you won’t have to move it again. Distribute the apple and raisin filling in the middle of the rectangle, trying to slightly compact it with your hands. Fold the dough over the filling from both longer sides, using the parchment paper underneath to help, and seal the strudel. Also fold the ends and seal them with a light press of the fingers.
Preheat the oven in static mode at a temperature of 356°F and while waiting for it to reach the temperature, leave the strudel to rest in the fridge. If desired, you can brush the surface with 1 beaten egg diluted with a tablespoon of milk to obtain a greater golden color. Personally, I don’t do it but it’s your choice, it doesn’t change the taste. Bake at 356°F for about 35-40 minutes, the shortcrust should be cooked and slightly golden. Remove from the oven and let it cool before serving sprinkled with powdered sugar.
NOTES
If you don’t have time or desire to make the dough, you can replace the shortcrust pastry with ready-made puff pastry available at the supermarket, although obviously, the result will not be the same. As for the filling, don’t worry because you will assemble it in a few minutes: just cut the apples into pieces, mix them with cinnamon and sugar, add raisins and pine nuts, and it’s done.
The amount of cinnamon to put inside the Strudel is quite subjective, I usually put half a teaspoon, but you are free to increase or decrease the dose according to your taste.
This recipe provides a “notable” amount of filling for the Strudel, slightly more than what you are used to reading. The choice of the master pastry chef who taught me lies in the fact that he wants to maximize the flavor and balance between pastry and apples by favoring the latter. You can, of course, decide to slightly decrease the amount of apples and raisins, the important thing is to keep the proportions.
STORAGE
You can store the apple strudel in the refrigerator in a container with a lid for a maximum of 3 days. When you want to serve it, just heat it for a few seconds in the microwave. It is also possible to freeze it, if you used fresh ingredients, and in this case, I advise you to portion it beforehand.
CURIOSITIES
The apple strudel is a very aromatic and delicious dessert with very ancient origins. It seems indeed to be a variant of the Bakalava, a Turkish rolled dessert made with phyllo dough. Following the Turkish conquests, the dessert arrived in Hungary in the 17th century, where it was transformed by the Hungarians into “strudel” with the introduction of apples in the roll. From there, it soon spread to Austria and reached South Tyrol, where it achieved great success, especially thanks to the renowned apple cultivations typical of the area.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
What apples for the strudel?
There are plenty of apple varieties on the market but not all are suitable for cooking and especially for being the filling of an Apple Strudel. In this regard, there are various schools of thought: some use Renette apples, others Golden Delicious, I personally find the latter better: they are compact, do not release too much water during cooking, and do not fall apart. To create the perfect filling, peel the apples, then cut them into small pieces, place them in a bowl, and sprinkle with a little cinnamon.
Which dough for strudel?
Which dough to use for strudel is a question to which, if we were to be particular, the answer should be “strudelteig,” which literally means dough for strudel. It is not a joke but what a cook and writer named Anna Dorn wrote in 1827 in her recipe book titled “the great book of Viennese cuisine,” where for the first time the recipe for apple strudel appears.
Indeed, this dessert originates wrapped in a very thin layer of dough, which we would call “phyllo dough” today, containing only flour, water, oil, and a pinch of salt.
A neutral dough that is used for both sweet and savory preparations and once cooked takes on a crumbly and crispy texture.
