APFELSTRUDEL (Austria)

INGREDIENTS :

Phylo dough

• 1 pound of apples, granny type (a bit acidic)
• Half a cup sugar
• Half a cup raisins
• 1 lemon
• Half a cup melted butter
• Half a cup milk
• Cinnamon
• Dry bread
• Rum (optional)

Preparation:

Peel apples and cut into small dices. In a bowl mix the apple dices with sugar, raisins, grated lemon skin – without the white part cause is bitter - , the juice of the lemon, half teaspoon cinnamon and teaspoon of rum (if you like it). Squeeze the mixture and let stand for half an hour. Meanwhile we melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan, adding a spoonful of sugar and bread crumbs (you should grate it yourself, and verify that is well-dry). Stir till the bread begins to slightly burnt.
It is supposed you have thawed the phylo dough on the upper part of the refrigerator overnight before (never out at room temperature). Extende the phylo well into a smooth surface on a clean cloth of the same size or larger. Then paint quickly with melted butter and sprinkle the semi-fried bread leaving one inch margin on the edges. The bread is used to absorb moisture from the apples.
Take now the mixture we have made of apples, raisins and so on and put over the breadcrumbs and phylo pasta sheet and without wasting time we take the peaks of the cloth closest to us and got up to begin to roll the dough edge over itself . When the roll picks thickness we can do by hand directly – otherwise the phylo would break -.
At the end of the process we will have a roll of phylo stuffed with apple. Close off the edges and paint the exterior of the roll with melted butter. Place in oven at 375 F degrees for one hour. Then we take half a cup of milk and pour over the roll. We set again to baking at the same temperature for about 10 minutes.

You are ready.

Now we're going to cut it into portions of three or four fingers wide and cover it with vanilla sauce. To make the vanilla sauce I recommend simply to boil a pint of skimmed milk with a branch of vanilla, one tablespoon of sugar and thicken with a tablespoon of cornstarch. Cover with the sauce the Apfelstrudel.

From my point of view is one of the best desserts ever.