One Sunday my grandmother decided to make an apricot strudel instead of the classic cheese štrukli. Nothing strange in it when you have three apricot trees in your front yard. But on that particular Sunday everyone was on some sort of a diet, so small bits of the strudel were cut. The conversation was started, the pan stayed on the table and after an hour it was empty. So much for diet and character. It is therefore time to repeat this experience with the proven recipe for filo pastry. 🙂
For filo pastry:
500 g (17.5 oz) soft flour
pinch of salt
50 ml (1.7 fl oz) oil
250 ml (8.5 fl oz) lukewarm water
oil for coating
For the filling:
800 g (28 oz) apricots
100 g (3.5 oz) sugar
2 packs vanilla sugar (20 g/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons rum
juice from half a lemon
120 g (4.2 oz) butter
40 g (1.4 oz) bread crumbs
For sprinkling:
powder sugar
Preparation
Sieve the flour, add salt, oil and water. Mix the ingredients for 15 minutes with an electric mixer until you get a mid-hard pastry. Form two balls, coat them with oil on both sides, cover with plastic foil and let stand for about 30 minutes.
Wash the apricots and remove the kernels. Cut them in fours, cover with rum, lemon juice and the mixture of sugar, vanilla sugar and cinnamon.
Cover the tablecloth with flour, put the pastry in the middle and roll it with the roller until it is thin. If needed, add some extra flour onto the tablecloth during rolling. Coat it with 3 tablespoons oil and let it stand for 10 minutes. Dissolve the butter on slow fire.
Use your hands to further thin the pastry (pull the pastry towards the edges of the table using the back of your hands). Cut the edges. Pour the pastry with several tablespoons of butter. Distribute half of the filling onto the third of the pastry (without the excessive liquid that the apricots released). Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and cover the edge of the pastry over the filling. Then using the tablecloth roll the pastry in order to get a strudel.
Level out the strudel, remove the thick edges and move it onto an oiled pan and due to its length fold it to accommodate the size of the pan. Repeat the procedure with the other ball of pastry.
Use the remaining butter to coat the strudels and bake them for 40 minutes in an oven previously heated to 180°C (356°F).
Serving
Let the strudels cool a bit and then sprinkle them with powder sugar. You can serve some ice cream or vanilla sauce next to the apricot strudel.
Preparation time
100 minutes
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