Just seems like a week ago when I drove from Munich to Innsbruck to have “homeland” Apple Strudel. Oh wait, that was just last week!
If you follow me on social media, you know that almost every time I am in Munich, a friend of mine and I do this crazy drive just for a piece of strudel, aka The Strudel Run. Sometimes in addition to Austria, we end up in Italy or Lichtenstein or Switzerland, but it’s always an adventure. Often, you’ll see that I hashtag my posts with #bergblicksteuer, and I suppose I should actually explain that so here goes: “Berg Blick Steuer” translates to “Mountain View Tax”. A number of years ago, on a Christmas Strudel Run with some additional adventurers, the topic of conversation was “Taxes that Germans Pay, that others don’t” — examples are Kirchensteuer (Church Tax), Luftsteuer (literally, “Air Tax”; a commercial tax if a sign extends into public space off your property), Hundesteuer or even Pferdesteuer (Dog or Horse Tax — we would call those permits or registration fees, but not taxes). Anyway, when the view of the mountains came into sight, someone made the off-handed comment like “Well, I see that we paid the Mountain View Tax”, and #bergblicksteuer became a thing.
Train of thought: Strudel > Strudel Run > View of the Alps > Berg Blick Steuer!
This is a pretty straight forward recipe, easy to make because I used store bought puff pastry. The recipe is actually for two strudels, but you can either halve the filling recipe, or make both and freeze one of the strudels (they freeze really well; reheat from frozen loosely wrapped in foil for 25 minutes at 350F). Or just eat both. They are delicious with vanilla custard sauce (my favorite), ice cream or whipped cream.
Ingredients
1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry dough, thawed to room temperature
3-4 baking apples, such as Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, Pink Lady or Empire
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch, mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup walnuts or hazelnuts, finely chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 beaten egg with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
To make the apple filling, peel, core, and chop apples into 1/2-inch cubes. You will need a total of 4 cups of chopped apples for two strudels. In a medium sauce pan, add apples and sauté for a minute or two. Add sugars and pinch of salt. The apples should get soft and start to become juicy. Sauté until almost all of the liquid is evaporated and the apples are very soft. Add cinnamon, then the cornstarch slurry, stirring frequently as the remaining juices thicken. Remove from the heat, add the nuts (optional) and set aside to cool. This can be done a day or two or three ahead of time.
Roll the pastry sheet into a 16×12-inch rectangle. Move to the baking sheet. Leaving a 5 1/2-inch center column, cut slits 1 inch apart from the 2 sides of the pastry rectangle. Spoon the apple mixture lengthwise down the center of the pastry. Starting at one end, fold the pastry strips over the filling, alternating sides, to cover it completely. Brush the pastry with the egg mixture. (Note: some people do this on the counter and then move the braid to the baking sheet, but I have never managed to do that, so I just do the assembly on the prepared baking sheet so I don’t have to move it.)
Bake the strudel in the 375F oven for 40-45 minutes until golden brown. Let the pastry cool for 10 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm with vanilla custard, vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream.
