It was the summer of 1985 when I first fell in love. He was tall, majestic, with sun kissed blond hair, light eyes and a glorious smile. It was love at first sight. I was 14 and he was 17. It was perfect.
I would lovingly stare at his pictures for hours. Made a scrapbook in his name. The only thing was, his name was Boris Becker. He was the most famous tennis player that year. He came out of nowhere. Young and talented. From then on, much into my 20’s I would watch his matches with wide eyed enthusiasm, feeling great elation at the wins and major lows at his losses. Passions definitely ran high!
The funny thing though was that I never wanted to meet him. Maybe because I didn’t want reality to ruin anything. He just looked so good, just the way it was. From across the room on a newly bought color television. (They were rare and a novelty in those days in India!).
Adoration for him led to of course love for all things German. The language winning the race. I just loved the roughness of how it sounded. Strangely enough though I didn’t much try to learn it. But life has a funny way of taking care of that. Between my love for Boris and finding the love of my life some time ago, I got to taste a similar language. Dutch. Which by the way I love!
But this post is an ode to Germany. And of course me wanting to get rid of the apples I picked! 🙂
The strudel tastes fantastic. I used phyllo pastry instead of the regular puff pastry dough. I was told that strudels are meant to be simple. So, no making your own pastry. If you don’t like the crunchiness of the phyllo, go ahead and use regular puff pastry. A perfect dessert to impress everyone at Thanksgiving!
- Makes 2 Loaves
- 10 sheets phyllo pastry (or puff pastry)
- 2-3 apples, cored, seeded and sliced
- 100 grams walnuts
- 100 grams brown sugar
- 60 grams caster sugar
- juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsps bread crumbs
- 1 egg + 1 tsp water for brushing the pastry
- a handful of cranberries
- thinly sliced almonds (without skin) for decoration
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Peel and slice the apples thinly, and put them in a bowl the lemon juice to stop them from going brown. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat and keep it warm.
- Carefully place the phyllo pastry on a baking plate lined with baking paper. Mix the walnuts, cinnamon and dark brown sugar together.
- Brush the first sheet of filo pasty with melted butter. Sprinkle over the walnut mixture. Lay another sheet of filo pastry on top, brush with butter and sprinkle again with walnut mixture. Repeat the steps till you top off with the fifth layer.
- Toss the apples well with the caster sugar and drained cranberries. Spread them out along one edge of the top sheet of phyllo pastry. Brush the opposite edge with a little water. Starting at the edge with the apple mixture on, gently lift the edges of the pastry and roll the pastry up lengthways like a Swiss roll – the apples will end up at the centre. Once it's all rolled up, press your strudel together gently, using water to seal. Once rolled, beat the egg with the water and brush on the top. Sprinkle with the sliced almonds.
- Place in oven for 20 minutes till nicely browned. Serve hot with a cold scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream.
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it looks beautiful and propably tastes wonderful as well.
My mom spent some summers in Germany as a kid and thought of naming her first daugher Apple Strudel – true story – thank God for my dad.
Haha Mo! Funny story. Thank God indeed for your dad! 🙂
I just love your photography so much!! Apple Strudel is on my culinary bucket list. My grandmother used to make it by scratch. As in she would make the phyllo dough from scratch too. It was so good. I need to make her recipe one of these days. Love your version so much!!
Hi Shanna, I love making my own pastry but was categorically told that strudels are supposed to be easy! Next time I’m making my own! Whichever way though this strudel is to die for! 🙂
Wow, it really makes me want to go to the kitchen and start making this! so delish! My cup of amaretto coffee is waiting for this! Thank you for sharing <3
Thanks for stopping by Henriette! Such a wonderful dessert for tea time! 🙂
Oh WOW, your pictures are great! And this Strudel looks soooo good. 🙂
Thank you! And the strudel didn’t disappoint. 🙂
Hi there, nice blog. Im trying your apple strudel tomorrow, so I’ll let you know how it comes out. Your blog looks very pretty, nice pictures. So thank you!