I’ll be honest–I’ve started this entry for 14-2: Apple Strudel a bunch of times, and I can’t think of anything exciting to say about it. There’s a lot of apple desserts in this book, and they all just start to blend together for me after a while. Even then, apple strudel is pretty a well-known dish to begin with, so odd are low that you’re going to learn anything new about it from reading Simply Delicious’ take on it.
It took me until NOW (and by now I mean as I’m pushing the keys to type this) to realize that there was actually powdered sugar coating the one pictured above, and they didn’t just peel the first layer of the outside off and say “yep, looks good to me”.
When they tell you you can swap in the pre-made stuff, 9/10 times you should definitely do that. I’ve done the work to make laminated dough by hand before, and it usually never turns out as well as the pre-made stuff.
They’re not having you do a full lamination of the dough if you make theirs (it’s closer to a traditional pâte brisée) but if you want the extra flaky layers, that’s what you’ll need.
Ingredients, including aforementioned pre-made dough sheets. I don’t have rum, but I do have this leftover applejack brandy from 15-20: Apple Compote, so we’ll use that instead. I think the apples were Gala ones from the CSA box, and I didn’t have a lemon so I grabbed an orange from the tree in my backyard.
Here’s the dough sheets, which means skip ahead to step 3.
Sous chef/prep cook/dishie works on breaking down apples for me.
I work on combining the rest of the filling, including the prepped apples. Those other ingredients in the back are for another apple recipe I made at the same time, 14-24: Wine-Baked Apples.
Like I said, there’s a LOT of apple recipes in here.
I can go ahead and skip most of Step 4 as well, and just lay out the dough sheets directly onto the sheet pans. Don’t forget to put the butter between the layers like they mention in the TIPS section.
Filling arranged along left side, as directed.
Rolled it like a burrito/wrap, because that’s what I know. Edges are pretty sealed, and I gave it a quick butter wash.
After baking. There could be ANYTHING in there! I like to imagine they’re giant egg rolls.
Nope, still an apple strudel. Look at those layers though–I may have used more than the suggested 6 sheets.
Final picture, minus the powdered sugar from their picture. It was okay, but I’m not a big strudel fan. But if you are, this one’s pretty easy, especially if you buy the pre-made dough sheets.
Grade: B+
