This is an easy version of German apple strudel recipe made with puff pastry. Flaky crust with soft apple filling is perfect for fall dessert
I love Germany. As I was enjoying my homemade apple strudel, I recalled traveling central Europe this past summer for a month. I think I spent more time in Germany than other countries. I love the people, their schnitzels and sausages, their castles, and of course, their autobahn.
People were generous and kind, the food was rustic, and there were soccer fever everywhere I went. My heart was with them whenever I heard the sound of the horn blowing in the valley. I wanted Germany to win for the World Cup.
The only hardest part for me there was finding bottled water without the “gas”. Most plastic bottled water were carbonated, and for me, it tasted bad. Sorry! Summer in Germany was beautiful and I shall go back there again…
Here are some highlights.
The Neuschwanstein castle
The band at the salt museum in Berchtesgaden
My favorite German castle, the Linderhof.
An old church built in 13th century in a small town called Haschbach. Now used as a restaurant, quite famous among locals. They have the best schnitzel I’ve ever eaten in Germany.
The schnitzel with rahm sauce. It is cream sauce over pork cutlet.
A lovely town called Gengenbach.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
My favorite Christmas shop in the world. I am a little Christmas fanatic…
Famous spot for picture taking
Beautiful houses…
Cochem
Getting ready for the cruise on Rhine river
and I guess the river cruise was not 7 year old boy thing…
A lady at Vogtsbauernhof weaving bracelet. Gutach open air museum.
Typical Black forest house in the 18th century
Picturesque town in Black Forest
Titisi lake
Ugh, the sibling fight… Don’t we all have the similar experience?
Another memorable dish. Pork with wild mushroom over spatzel
My favorite dessert in Black forest was not the black forest cake. It was the apple strudel.
Oh, my, I fell in love with this. Warm cinnamon spiced apples in a flaky crust., it made me to loose my interest in American apple pie.
So I have been searching for a recipe. Library comes handy to look for unusual cookbooks. Well, If you want to make this in authentic way of German/Austrian style, it is quite of work, I learned.
You need to roll out the dough into a very thin layer. It has to be translucent enough to read newspaper behind it. You can not do this on the counter top. You will need a dining table. Some people use their bed sheet on top to roll the dough on it. Of course, it has to be a clean one…
I am lacking energy to do all the work of rolling and stretching, unless David Hasselhoff comes to my place for dinner. But he must bring his knight rider along. So I decide to cheat and do easier way; the store bought Puff pastry! This is how I made.
I used golden delicious and cortland apples. Puff pastry, brown sugar, white sugar, flour, walnut, bread crumb, and cinnamon is all you need.
And One egg with a little bit of water for brushing.
I like to chop my apples in 1/2″ cubes,
mix in with sugar, flour, and cinnamon. I use Vietnamese cinnamon. Simply the best!
Let it sit for 20 min, so they can release their juices.
Chop the walnuts, or ground them if you prefer. If you don’t like walnuts you can use almonds, or omit them.
Mix the nut with sugars, and bread crumbs.
Roll the pastry to stretch out, about 10″x12″. Make sure your pastry is well thawed in the room temperature.
Sprinkle the nut mixture half way and place the apples on top.
Lift up the front side and cover the apples,
and start rolling.
Seam sides down and pinch the ends.
Place them on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Brush with egg wash to create beautiful golden crust.
Make some slits for the steam to escape.
Bake at 375ºF for 40-45minutes. Voila! The flaky crust with soft apple filling, I enjoyed my warm strudel with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream, relaxing in sofa listening to words of wise men. And thanked Germany for the sweet memories of last summer.
Guten Appetit!
Apple Strudel
Ingredients
- 1 package of puff pastry 2 sheets, thawed in room temperature
- 2-3 baking apples I used golden delicious and cortland
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tb whit sugar
- 2 Tb flour
- 1/2 C chopped or ground nuts walnut or almond
- 3 Tb light brown sugar
- 2 Tb white sugar
- 2 Tb bread crumbs
- 1 beaten egg with 1tsp water for brushing
Instructions
- Preheat you oven to 375ºF.
- Peel, core, and chop apples into 1/2" cubes. You will need total 2 cups of chopped apples.
- Place them in a bowl and add cinnamon, white sugar, and flour. Set aside for 20 minutes so they can release the juices.
- In another bowl combine nuts, sugars, and bread crumbs. Set aside.
- Roll out one sheet of pastry into about 10"x12". Sprinkle 1/2 of nut mixture on the pastry covering halfway and place 1/2 of apples on top. Lift up the front side of pastry and cover the apple and start rolling all the way. Finish the other sheet in the same method.
- Pinch the ends of each logs and tuck under. Transfer them on to baking sheet with parchment paper on it, seam side down.
- Brush the top with egg wash. Make a few slits on top for the steam to escape.
- Bake at 375F for 40-45 minutes until the crust gets nicely golden brown.
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream. Enjoy!
Thank you, thank you for sharing this recipe! I found it on foodgawker, and it immediately caught my eye. My husband and I just returned from Germany, and I am craving everything Deutsch — especially the pastries! I am definitely going to make this one.
Can leftovers be frozen?
Very nice! I made my first strudel the other day, too — turned out wonderfully: http://squirrelbread.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/apfelstrudel-a-new-tradition/. Doesn't Germany just pull you in, make you want to stay the rest of your life?
Cheers,
*Heather*
What a great-looking fall treat! I always make apple turnovers around this time of year!
your photos of Germany almost made me homesick…and Ive never been there!
such beautiful countryside *sigh*
great recipe, Im adding it to my recipe file!
thanks =)
@Noshings
Thanks for visiting. German countryside is absolutely gorgeous. Every house has flowers box on their window and their door steps. People are very orderly and well mannered. Just lovely!
I just found your blog. And I must say that in the midst of thousands of food blogs online, I love yours! You are so funny! I have now added you to my favorites bar. Will be returning soon! 🙂
I'm so glad to hear your sweet happy experience on my second land – adopted by heart and because of the sweetheart as well!
Deutschland is my new homeland…
Very soon I'll end my business trip here in the southern sky and my wings will guide me home, a tiny little island in the cold precious North Sea. Who knows, maybe you can visit me and I take you for a Kaffe und Kuchen!
Wonderful recipe, darling!
Beautiful photos!
Hugs!
What a delicious looking desert! I have 3 apple trees with loads more apples than I know what to do with, thanks for the idea 🙂
*kisses* HH
My German grandmother used to make delicious apple strudel – I miss that! 😀
Your photos are beautiful and the strudel looks delicious!
@MPapery
Thanks for your compliment. My husband says all the time that I am funny but I've always thought I am boring person. I wonder my boring-ness can be funny?
I am from Germany and most people here either buy strudel or cheat just the way you did 😉 Making the real dough is just too much work at home. If you ever go to Vienna you can watch an "apple strudel show" in Schönbrunn. You will love it!
Just found this blog via Tastespotting and now it's bookmarked, I'm looking forward to more nice recipes and beautiful pictures 🙂
@Patricia Scarpin
Hi Pat!!! Wonderful to see you here!!! Isn't this space such pure delight? This talented korean chef is wonderful!
I've never had the pleasure of visiting Germany. But thanks for taking me along for the ride with your wonderful photos. The struedel looks like the perfect souvenir, too.
Lovely post, and your strudel looks fabulous!!
Love ur blog!
I wanted to say almost the same, as my fellow German commentator already did. Ohh well, there is a German saying : "Doppelt genaeht haelt besser." which can be roughly translated as "Doubly stitched make things stronger".
Once in my lifetime – in fact it was in the middle of last century (in 1959) – while attending a cooking school, I made "Strudel" from scratch, since then I am using either puff pastry or fillo dough. Both work very well.
Anna in N.
First of all thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe. And the pictures are gorgeous. I better plan my trip for next year. I love Europe.
Mmmmm, looks so good! Simple but delicious, I love it!
I was in Germany a few years ago and loved the apple strudel. This looks amazing and I can't wait to make it!
@Anonymous
Thanks for the information on the apple strudel show. I will check it out when I visit Vienna someday. Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you visit again.
I LOVE your blog. I have already bookmarked about…10 recipes.
Maybe you can do a blog post about korean hot pot soon!? It's getting cold in New York. 🙂
I just made this today…phenomenal!!! I'm just so glad it makes two!
delicious favourite
lovely addition of breadcrumbs
This makes me happy. 😀
I'm a 19 year old girl from Germany and I found your blog, because I love spicy food and always wanted to try spicy rice cakes. However, I havent found a place to get them yet and therefore decided to try making my own.
So I'm spending some time here, reading a few of your recipes and suddenly I stumble across this one. 🙂
The shop for christmas decoration you talked about… I have been there too, because I live in another small town just across the Rhine River. And I'm glad you liked Germany 🙂
My Grandma lives in Bavaria in a small town quite near to the border to Austria so she is the master of apple strudel 🙂 And a thing she also is great at cooking: Zigeunerschnitzel (Zigeuner means gypsy). I don't know if you have tried it, but it's really really good. It's schnitzel with a sauce with lots of paprika and some other vegetables in it. Its really nice, especially with home made french fries. Oh, and it actually tastes a lot better if you dont coat the meat with breadcrumbs, i think it just gets soggy because of the sauce.
And do you know Bratapfel? Uuh, how to translate this… It basically means baked/roasted apple, I think. I dont even know if they have this in other countries. Its an old recipe and I think its origin is in Bavaria… You eat this in winter when its really cold, especially around christmas. You just take out the apple core and fill the apple with a mixture of nuts, raisins, cinnamon, sugar and so on and then you put it in the oven.
Greets from Germany!
Hi
I am so happy to hear from someone in Germany. I am glad that you found my blog as well.
I love Germany.
Some day I will challenge myself to make the strudel in authentic way. Is the "Zigeunerschnitzel" you mentioned closed to Hungarian Goulash? Sounds delish!
I think I have tried the Bratapfel but I didn't know the actual name. It was baked apples with brown sugar and cinnamon in the center. Thanks for letting me know the name. Such a great comfort food in the winter.
For the rice cakes, I found a Korean grocery store in the Kauserslautern near Ramstein U.S military base (I think there are quite many Korean population there). They had frozen rice cakes on sale. Of course you can make at home if you can get sweet rice flour. Just mix with water until it becomes a dough (Bread dough consistency). Roll out to be a long skinny sticks and cut. Steam them until they are all cooked. Coat with some oil on the surface so they don't stick to each other.
I would love to go back especially to Bavaria. Just stunningly beautiful! Please feel free to contact me if you have any question regarding any recipes.
Holly
Hi 🙂
I'm so sorry I didn't reply sooner…
Thank you SO much for the information about the rice cakes 😀 I will definitely try to make some myself!
I think the sauce of the Zigeunerschnitzel is quite similar to the one used in Hungarian Goulash… Just lots and lots of paprika. 🙂
Lena
Your strudel looks wonderful! My boyfriend is from Austria and this is his favorite. I'll be making your recipe today, and I'll let you know how it turns out.
Thank you Rachel. Hope your boyfriend enjoys it.
Am a Korean-American who also loves Germany and Austria and the apple strudel in both countries so was elated to come across this recipe and the photos. What a great idea to use the puff pastry sheets. I used raisins instead of walnuts and sliced the apples on a mandolin to get very thin slices. All in all, your recipe was a huge hit!
Thak you for a great recipe!
Just scrolling through Pinterest and found your strudel recipe. I made it this evening and it was wonderful!! I never made strudel before because I thought it was way to difficult, your recipe made this dessert not only an all time favorite but so easy to master. It also filled my home with the most delicious aromas!!! Autumn is here and so is apple season, thanks to you apple strudel will be on my dessert menu often.
Heya i’m for the first time here. I came across this board and I find
It truly useful & it helped me out much. I hope to
give something back and aid others like you helped me.
I made this (with only very slight alterations to suite my tastes) and it came out looking so perfect and professional. I real show-case pastry. Thank you for such detailed photographs. To accommodate my daughter’s tree nut allergy I sprinkled an apple crisp crumble topping (flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, butter) inside mine in place of the walnut mixture. It worked out perfectly! I know the nuts are traditional and really give it that authentic German taste, but this is a good alternative for those with allergies to enjoy it too. Thank you!
Another pin win!! Delicious and super easy
Ohmygoodness!!!!! I made 2 boxes worth of German Apple Strudel, so 4 logs of it, for my German-side Family Reunion today. Not many things I try actually turn out, but THIS???? It was easy, looked Fabulous, tasted Delicious, and was a very special nod to my Grandma’s German heritage, even though she died 4 Summers ago. I got sooo many compliments on it, from extended family members that I didn’t even know!!! THANK YOU for a Wonderful strudel recipe!!! I look forward to making this again and again – for home, to share with my family, to share with my coworkers, to bring to church…to rely on WHENEVER I need a Delicious dessert!!!! The Puff Pastry was really buttery and flaky and DELICIOUS!!!!! What a great recipe!!! Thank you for posting it. ❤
I saw that the recipe makes two logs of apple strudel, yum!! But just in case we can’t eat it fast enough, have you tried to freeze it and re-heat it with any luck?
No, I have not tried freezing them. But I think you can. Just reheat in the oven to get the flaky crust back.
I am making your Strudel recipe for a church event but need to bake it the night before. Will that work or will it lose its crunchy pastry?
It will loose the crisp texture outside if left too long. You can prepare everything on the night before and keep them in the fridge. Then Bake just before you take to church.