Thursday, June 4, 2009

Apple and Hazelnut strudel to cheer one up



I was feeling a bit flat when I got home last night, so I made a most delicious Apple and Hazelnut Strudel, and it was served with whipped cream. It was inspired by this recipe over at cuisine.com.au. The problem I find with most recipes is that I am tending to make them for 2 people (Food Critic Andrew and Myself). I love making things like this for everyday - but these tend to be recipes for 6-8 people; that is, dinner party size servings. I mean, I'm a scientist, I can (sort of!) do the math, but I do wish some things were more directed at smaller serves. Anyway, I made this with:

For the filling:
one granny smith apple, peeled, cored and diced
juice of one lemon
a few drops of rum essence or a spoon of real rum if you have some!
tspn cinnamon
tablespoon of caster sugar
2 tablespoons of hazelnuts, which I roasted in a skillet pan; skinned and lightly chopped

Pastry:
One sheet of ready made puff pastry
enough bread crumbs to lightly cover the pastry
1 egg yolk


Mix the filling;
spead bread crumbs lightly over pastry
spoon mix into middle of pastry, then roll into a log shape.
Seal with the egg yolk

Chill for 20 minutes in the fridge, brush the top of the pastry with egg yolk then bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees (c).

Serve with whipped cream!

I actually loved this, but Andrew wasn't such a big fan. I made it quite sour and tangy tasting - which I love - but you could actually make this far sweeter (use less lemon and rum) if you have more of a sweet tooth.

It's definitely a dessert thing! All that rum makes it not so much a breakfast treat!
Next time I may make it sweeter to try that out, and I think this strudel recipe could really be substituted with all sorts of different fruits and nuts.

I would also probably cut the log into wheels - I think that the pastry would be a bit more golden-ish looking on the sides if I did this.

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