It’s that time of year when apples are plentiful. If you don’t have any fruit trees in your yard, or if like me you do but they aren’t bearing much fruit, perhaps someone will share with you. I was in that fortunate position a couple days ago and a neighbour of ours brought over a box of apples. One of my trees has a couple dozen or so and they look good, but for now I’m making this treat with a bountiful gift and leaving those to ripen a bit longer. A shout out to neighbours everywhere who are sharing, we appreciate it!
My mother would make apple strudels all the time, more frequently in the fall as apples are abundant this time of year. And I remember eating this not so much as a ‘dessert’ but really more of a snack or even sometimes breakfast. At our house it was never seen as unhealthy or a ‘sweet’ but more apples prepared in a delicious way. LOL…. There is nothing bad in this; cream cheese, butter, lots of apples and some sugar and cinnamon basically, and what’s bad or unhealthy about that?! I’ve just had two pieces for breakfast, old habits die hard I guess. :0
Dare I say the crust is spectacular and amazing and flakey and light and so simple it’ll never fail, you can’t mix too much or too little or have it too warm or too cold, honestly you’ll be embarrassed to tell people how easy it is to make something this damn good. Yes, that is a mouthful, but trust me, you’ll want to use this crust for everything… so… you’re welcome!
Apple Cranberry Strudel
For the Crust
- 250 grams unsalted butter (room temp)
- 250 grams full fat cream cheese (room temp)
- 250 grams flour
Put flour in a pile on the workspace / counter. Cut in room temp butter and cream cheese. With clean hands, roll up your sleeves and take off any jewelry and mix together well to form into dough. Cut into half and roll out onto surface into a rectangle 2 1/2 times the width of finished strudel and just a touch longer than the baking pan. This dough makes two strudels, you can half or double the recipe to make one or four.
- 4 cups peeled, cored and sliced apples – preferable crisp like granny smith or something similar
- 1 cup frozen cranberries
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 egg whisked
- Icing sugar to dust on top of baked, cooled strudel
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs evenly down the centre of the dough leaving an inch or so at the ends (this keeps the apples from soaking the actual crust). Put half the apples evenly down the centre of the dough, sprinkle cranberries then sugar and cinnamon. Make sure no apple pieces will stick out, you don’t want them poking through the dough, so move them around to make sure you have a nice even mound. Gently lift one side over the apples, gently rub some whisked egg (to help stick) along the top of the edge you have flipped over then flip the second side over and do the same with the ends. Carefully move to a baking sheet. This is where it’s good that you paid attention to the length of the pan (I have the pan close by and do an eyeball check when I’m rolling out the dough). Prick the top with fork creating a few vent holes a few inches apart down the whole side you can also use the fork to gently brush along the edges to help them stick together, finally brush with eggs. Set aside and do the same with the second one. You should be able to fit two strudels on a baking pan with a bit of space between them.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how hot your oven is, until a nice golden brown. Let cool and then dust with icing sugar, slice and serve.
You can also add raisons or nuts if you like instead of or in addition to the cranberries. In my house we all love cranberries but not everyone likes nuts or raisons so that’s how we make it here. For some of you it may seem odd to make two, but trust me, they disappear quickly. If you only want one then you can always wrap and freeze the extra for up to a month, let come to room temp before dusting with icing sugar and serving.