city TRIP

Vienna

Recipe for an Original Viennese Apple Strudel Grandma's style:

Ingredients for the dough:
80 ml warm water
15 g (approx. 1 ¾ tbsp) sunflower oil or other tasteless oil
½ tsp vinegar (or lemon juice)
1/8 tsp salt
145 g wheat flour, smooth
1 tsp of oil for spreading the dough

For the filling:
900 g (approx. 5 pcs) slightly sour apples 
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp (50 g) Raisins
3 tbsp rum or lukewarm water
60 g sugar (for a moderately sweet filling)
¾ tsp cinnamon
40 g butter
80 g fine breadcrumbs
2 tbsp (approx. 20 g) melted butter for spreading
Icing sugar (powdered sugar) for dusting

Also:
Strudel cloth or tablecloth

Preparation for the strudel dough:
Mix water, oil, vinegar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add about half of the flour and stir with a spoon. Add the rest of the flour and work it in, first with a spoon, later with your hands.

Once the dough ingredients are kneaded into a smooth ball, place on the work surface, and knead vigorously for 10 minutes. Beat the dough on the work surface from time to time. The dough should be moist but not sticky. If necessary, add a little flour.

Form the dough into a smooth ball, rinse a ceramic, glass, or porcelain bowl with hot water, dry thoroughly and spread with ½ teaspoonful of oil. Place the dough ball inside and brush with ½ TL oil. Cover with a tight lid or cling film. The dough likes it warm.

Let the dough rest for 1 hour at room temperature. (The dough can also be prepared in advance and keeps for 3 days in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before processing.)

For the filling:
Melt butter in a pan, add breadcrumbs and fry until golden brown. Remove the pan from the stove. Be careful, the crumbs may darken due to the heat of the pan.

Mix sugar and cinnamon evenly and mix with the butter crumbs. Set aside.

Peel and quarter the apples, remove the core and cut into slices. Sprinkle the apples with lemon juice so that they do not brown.

Soak the raisins in rum or lukewarm water for about 10 minutes. This makes them softer.

Stripping After resting, roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured work surface as large as a baking tray, always lightly flour the dough and turn it over if necessary. It should neither stick to the rolling pin nor to the work surface.

Prepare the strudelcloth/tablecloth (best on a large table) and place pointed rings aside. Push both backs of your hands under the dough and stretch the dough from the inside out. When the dough becomes very thin and large, place it on the cloth and continue to stretch. The dough should be pulled out rectangularly, paper-thin and transparent.

If there are still thick edges, cut them away, otherwise, they will become "liquid" dough in the rolled-up strudel.

Spread half of the strudel with half of the melted butter, keep the rest of the butter to coat the finished strudel. Sprinkle the other half of the dough evenly with butter-sugar crumbs, cover with apple slices, and drained raisins. Keep a few centimeters clear of the edges of the sides when spreading.

Whip the sides a few centimeters over the filling and roll up the strudel using the cloth. Start with the side with apples.

Roll the rolled strudel onto baking paper with the seam facing down and then transfer it onto the baking tray using the baking paper.

Brush the strudel with the remaining melted butter and bake in a preheated oven at 190 °C top and bottom heat (175 °C convection oven) for about 30-40 minutes.

Let the strudel cool down for 10 minutes, cut into pieces and dust with icing sugar. Optionally serve with whipped cream.

Tip:
The ingredients are sufficient for strudel in baking tray length (for approx. 8 persons). If you want to prepare a larger strudel, leave the dough quantity the same, and only increase the amount of filling. To do this, stretch the strudel dough squarely with the desired side length and either bake a large strudel in a horseshoe shape (fits on a baking tray) or prepare two individual strudels (cut the dough in half with a knife after stripping).

Austria, October 2019. | All words and photos by The Sturgheons.