Cherry Strudel with nuts

  First time I have tried strudel at home. It was a frosty winter day, I was at home finishing a homework after school, when my mother came and told me she’d got a new dessert recipe! I was so excited, because it has been a habit in our family, almost every evening we had a tea with some freshly-baked pies, buns or danishes whether it were homemade or store-bought.. Easy to guess, it was a strudel recipe. At that time of the year we could make only apple-raisin filling; compare to today it was impossible to buy even frozen cherries, only if you hadn’t froze it by yourself last summer. So, we had some nice apples, which were picked from garden and kept in a cellar, raisins and walnuts; the recipe worked so good, the pastry turned thin and smooth.. and we liked the result – new, mysterious and so delicious strudel! 🙂 Believe me or not, since then I’m using exactly the same pastry recipe and it works! 🙂

 Certainly, you can cheat and use filo pastry, though you should try to make the pastry from scratch at least once, it only sounds complicated. Most of you know, that nothing could beat the homemade pastry! 😉
Cherry Strudel
 Do you know, that first strudel recipe is dating back to 1696; strudel legend says that the Austrian Emperor’s chef  was perfectionist, he even made an order that strudel pastry should be so thin that you could read a love letter through it!
Scrumptious Strudel

Cherry Strudel with nuts

Ingredients
Pastry:
250g all-purpose white flour
1 egg
50g melted butter
125ml warm water
a pinch of salt
Filling:
700-900g pitted cherries
3-5 Tbsp caster sugar
4 Tbsp finely crushed almonds or breadcrumbs
3 Tbsp walnuts, coarsely chopped
3 Tbsp hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
40g currants (black)
40g golden raisins
3 Tbsp cognac/brandy/rum
 
40g melted butter, for glazing
1-2 Tbsp icing sugar, for serving
 
Preparation
  1. The pastry. Sift flour on to a clean surface, add salt, and make a  well in the middle. Slightly beat an egg with water and butter, add the mixture into flour. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, time to time punch it down and throw until it becomes elastic and smooth. Wrap it in clingfilm and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven 200C/400F. Line the baking tray with baking paper, grease it with some melted butter or oil.
  3. The filling. In a cup or small bowl, put all washed raisins and cover with cognac; soak for 15 minutes, then pour out remaining cognac. Cut cherries into halves, you may keep some whole.
  4. The pastry. Dust a workspace with flour and roll out the pastry into rectangle as thinly as possible. You can place wet and floured tea-towel, and do it on it. When you can’t roll the pastry any more, begin stretching it using your hands – place back side of your hands under the pastry and stretch it. Keep on going until it is very thin or you can see pattern of the tea-towle through it.
  5. Brush the rolled dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with crushed almonds, leave en edge 3cm uncovered. If using breadcrumbs, brown them in some butter until golden-brown.
  6. Spread cherries, and sprinkle with sugar. Adjust amount of sugar, depending on your taste.
  7. Scatter raisins and remaining nuts on top.
  8. Fold uncovered edges in, then roll up the pastry into a sausage shape. 
  9. Gently put the strudel on the baking tray, brush with melted butter. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the pastry is golden.
  10. Allow to cool slightly before serving, dust with icing sugar. Serve while it’s still warm with vanilla ice cream or sauce.
 For the vanilla sauce, in a medium pan warm 125ml milk and vanilla bean (don’t allow to boil); add 1 beaten egg yolk along with 1Tbsp caster sugar and 1 tsp cornmeal into pan; stirring constantly, cook on a medium heat for 9-12 minutes, until the sauce thickens a bit. Let it slightly cool and serve with strudel.
Absolutely tasty!
Let’s party, lovely bloggers! Let’s drink (ha, only lemonade so far..) and eat all those tasty dishes, that we’ve brought at FF! 🙂

51 Comments

  6. CakePants says:

    This looks marvelous!! I love strudel, but have never attempted to make it myself at home – I was always too intimidated. I haven’t had strudel in years, though, so maybe it’s time to give it a try! Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂

    « Reply
  7. apuginthekitchen says:

    Oh wow I love your strudel, looks amazing and I really love that you used cherries, great change from apples. Beautifully done. Must ask, was your dough so thin you could read through it?Looks delicate and thin to me.

    « Reply
    • milkandbun says:

      Cherry strudel is my favourite! The dough was so elastic and easy to roll it out (I even didn’t use towel), so yes – I could see a table surface thru it! 🙂

      « Reply
  11. Jess says:

    Strudel! I want some! Like now!

    Awesome job, thank you for sharing this recipe with us, your photos are beautiful. Happy Fiesta Friday!

    « Reply

  13. Pingback: Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie | Fiesta Friday #26 | The Novice Gardener

  19. chefjulianna says:

    Just stunning, Mila! You really do inspire me to try making things I have never made before! I haven’t been much of a pastry maker, but I think it will become my newest project! This is just a lovely post! 🙂

    « Reply
  23. saucygander says:

    Wow, you made strudel pastry! That is amazing, and it turned out perfectly. What an awesome dessert to bring to FF, thank you for another wonderful post!!

    « Reply
  24. A Home Cook says:

    I so love it that you made your own pastry rather than buying filo. Not so sure I’ll ever be so innovative, but it’s inspired me to think about it! Happy FF.

    « Reply

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  27. platedujour says:

    How am I gonna go to sleep now?? Now you’re talking! How did I miss this recipe ?? I love cherries, I would do anything for a piece of this strudel. I will mark this recipe for the next few months- oh my so glad I found it 😀

    « Reply

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