Apple Strudel with Vanilla Bean Custard

Making strudel has been on my to-bake list for quite a while but I was always kind of scared to actually try making the paper thin dough.

When I saw Gary making it on the MasterChef, I knew I HAVE to try this. He made it look so simple. And I have to admit, it sure was as easy as we saw it on the T.V.

Making and rolling out of the dough is kind of nerve-racking but it doesn't have to be difficult as long as you have a good dough recipe and, most importantly, a little patience.

Make sure to knead your dough by hand for several minutes until it is tacky, not sticky. Tacky dough will adhere to you finger, but will release it without leaving much of a trace. Sticky dough will leave a residue on your hand.

A lot of good recipes add vinegar to the dough, but I havent as I wanted to follow Gary's recipe and I must say, the pastry stretched out real thin and was really crispy after baking.

The filling was packed with beautiful flavours and delicious crunchiness of the Rose apples. Will surely be making this again.

Apple Strudel with Vanilla Custard
Adapted from here

Ingredients:

Strudel pastry 

225g plain flour, plus extra for kneading 

1 whole egg 

125ml warm milk 

½ teaspoon salt 

30g butter, melted

Apple filling 

5 pink lady apples (I used Rose apples) 

60ml brandy

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

¼ cup raisins (I used golden raisins) 

¼ cup flaked almonds 

Zest of 1 lemon 

¾ cup (165g) brown sugar 

125g fresh sourdough breadcrumbs (I had normal white bread in my pantry, so I used that) 

60g butter, melted for brushing 

Icing sugar, for dusting

Vanilla Custard 

300ml pouring cream (I used low fat Amul Cream) 

200ml milk 

1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped 

5egg yolks 

¼ cup caster sugar 

25g corn flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 200°C. 

For pastry, place flour, egg, milk and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough paddle and beat at a low speed to combine. Add butter, increase speed and beat to a smooth dough. Turn onto a lightly floured bench and knead until smooth, elastic and doesn’t stick. Place in an oiled bowl, cover and allow to rest for 35-40 minutes.

For filling, peel, core and quarter apples. Roughly cut into medium chunks. Place in a bowl with brandy, cinnamon, raisins, almonds and lemon zest and toss to combine.

Reserve 1/3 of each brown sugar and breadcrumbs and set to one side. Add the remaining brown sugar and breadcrumbs to the apple mixture, toss to combine and allow to sit, covered, for flavours to infuse.

Sprinkle bench with flour, roll out dough to a rectangle approximately 40x60cm and very thin. Take a 60cmx80cm piece of cloth or clean tea towel and sprinkle with plain flour. Use a rolling pin to help you transfer the pastry onto the cloth and gently pull pastry by the edges until it is transparent. Ensure thick areas are worked to a similar transparency and dough isn’t sticking to the cloth. Trim edges.

Sprinkle pastry with reserved breadcrumbs and sugar, then spoon apple mix down the length of the pastry in a rectangular shape 3-4inches wide and piled up high. Sprinkle apple and pastry with reserved breadcrumbs and brown sugar. 

To roll, use the cloth to fold the ends of the pastry over apples to encase, fold the sides of the pastry over to seal and roll up loosely into a thick, plump and elongated strudel shape.

Transfer to a baking paper-lined oven tray and brush with melted butter. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden and pastry is crisp.

Allow to cool slightly before dusting heavily with icing sugar.

Vanilla Custard
Place cream, milk, vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan over a medium heat and just bring to the boil. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until thick and pale. Whisk in corn flour, pour half of the hot cream into egg mixture, whisking continuously. Pour into remaining cream mixture and return to a medium low heat. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until mixture is thick and coats the back of a spoon. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl placed over a bowl of iced water and stir custard until cooled to room temperature. Pour into a serving jug.

To serve, cut strudel into thick pieces and serve with a drizzle of custard.

I m linking this post to the blog-hop event Cook Like a Star, organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out and me, Anuja of Simple Baking. You can also join us in this event by simply cooking or baking any recipe (from the contestants, judges or even sponsors)  from any MasterChef website (any countries) or cookbook and blog-hop with us for the whole month of September 2012. For more details, check here.

                                                  

Here are my other blogger friends who have joined us in this blog-hop. Please visit their blogs to watch more of their 5 star recipes.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste the code.

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