Apfelstrudel

Austrian Apfelstrudel is a pastry made by rolling apples in a thin dough and baking it. Dough stretched so thin that it is almost translucent wraps layer upon layer around a thick heap of apples. In German, Apfel means apple and Strudel means a whirlpool of water. True to its name, the cross-section of the rolled dough resembles a whirlpool. To roll the thinly spread dough without tearing it, the cloth laid underneath is used to lift the dough together with the filling. Toasted breadcrumbs or similar ingredients are spread on the dough to absorb the juice released by the apples.

Rolling Thinly Stretched Dough to Create Layers

Strudel dough is made by kneading flour, water, oil, salt, and other ingredients, resting the dough, and then spreading it thin by hand. A sample formula in the traditional food register uses 30 grams of oil, 150 grams of water, and 3 grams of salt for 300 grams of flour. The surface is coated with oil, and the dough is covered and rested for at least 30 minutes. It is then rolled out lightly on a floured cloth and pulled outward from the center with the backs of the hands. Resting makes the dough easier to stretch, and by taking care not to tear it, the baker can spread it thin enough to see through.

The way the layers are formed differs from pastry in which butter is folded into the dough repeatedly. With strudel dough, melted butter is brushed over the spread surface, and the layers are created by rolling. There are also methods that use laminated puff pastry (Blätterteig), which produces layers and a texture different from those of dough stretched by hand into a single sheet.

A cross-section showing apples and raisins within layers of thin pastry. Photo: Burkhard Mücke, 2014-12-10, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the distributing source; no additional processing.

Toasted Breadcrumbs Absorb the Apple Juice

The basic filling consists of thinly sliced tart apples, raisins, sugar, cinnamon, and toasted breadcrumbs. Tart apples with firm flesh are also known by the common name Strudler. Today, this is not only the name of a single variety; it is also used as a term for apples suited to strudel.

The breadcrumbs are toasted in fat to give them a toasty aroma and are spread between the apples and the thin dough. During baking, they absorb the juice released by the apples and keep the dough from taking on too much moisture. Some methods add ground hazelnuts to breadcrumbs toasted in butter; the Austrian National Tourist Office’s recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) is one example. Other methods use only toasted breadcrumbs, without hazelnuts.

In some examples, dried sponge cake is crumbled finely and spread on the dough. In Tomizawa Shoten’s recipe, the sponge cake is dried and pressed through a sieve, placed on the thinly stretched dough, and then topped with the apples.

The amount of sugar is adjusted to the tartness of the apples. Some versions use lemon juice or zest, or raisins soaked in rum. The quantities of the ingredients are also adjusted according to the firmness of the flesh and the amount of juice, so that the filling can be wrapped in the thin dough.

A slice served at a café in Vienna. Thinly layered apples and pastry are visible. Photo: Geolina163, 2023-05-21, Café Sperl, Vienna. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the distributing source; no additional processing.

Rolling with a Cloth and Closing Both Ends

Instead of spreading the filling over the entire surface, the baker places the breadcrumbs and fruit on part of the dough and brushes the empty area with melted butter. The thick edges are trimmed off, the left and right ends are closed, and the strudel is rolled up by lifting the cloth. Lifting from below with the cloth makes it possible to roll the dough around the heavy filling without pulling on the thin dough alone with the fingers.

The strudel is transferred to a baking sheet seam side down, the surface is also brushed with butter, and it is baked. Closing the sides and both ends makes it harder for the apples and juice to escape during baking. In recipes that use puff pastry, the filling is placed in the center and wrapped from both sides, and the surface is brushed with egg, for example, so both the rolling method and the finish change. The wrapping method and the material brushed on the surface are chosen according to the type of dough.

Milk and Apple Versions in Old Cookbooks

The name strudel, used for this family of pastries, goes back to a handwritten cookbook from 1629. The anonymous 1696 Koch-Puech, cited by Austria’s traditional food register, records a Milchrahmstrudel made with milk and cream, and the 1699 Granat-Apffel also includes a version made with milk. Not all of the old records describe apple versions.

In the 18th century, recipes appear for rolling apples, rice, cheese, nuts, vegetables, and other fillings. Anna Dorn’s cookbook Neuestes Universal- oder Großes Wiener-Kochbuch, published in 1827, describes an apple version made with strudel dough. It is not certain when the apple version originated, but by the first half of the 19th century in Vienna, it had become a pastry whose method appeared in cookbooks.

There is also a legend that Empress Maria Theresa of the Habsburg Monarchy (1717–1780) popularized strudel at court. This is not a story claiming that the empress invented the apple version; it is a legend about how strudel came to be enjoyed at court.

Two Theories on the Spread of Thin Pastry Dough

There are two theories about how the extremely thin dough spread, both linked to the Middle East. One traces the thin-pastry sweets of the Moors, who crossed from North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula, as they moved on to France and elsewhere; the other follows a route through the Balkans and Hungary with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. In the latter regions, a stretched-dough pastry called rétes in Hungarian has also been made. Austria’s traditional food register notes that a 1699 cookbook also used the term “Spanish dough.”

Pastries made with thin dough are found widely in these regions, but some points about how they spread remain unclear. They also differ in how they are shaped: baklava stacks thin sheets, while strudel has filling placed on it and is rolled up. Who brought apple strudel to Austria has not been established either.

Regional Methods Using Cream, Milk, and Cheese

In the old Viennese style, sour cream is added to the apple filling. Some Salzburg-style versions have warm milk poured over them before eating, and in the Alpine regions some use a kneaded dough or a dough containing Topfen. Besides simply dusting it with powdered sugar, people also serve it with whipped cream, vanilla sauce, or ice cream.

Topfenstrudel, by contrast, is filled with fresh cheese, and Milchrahmstrudel uses a filling of bread, eggs, cream, and other ingredients, with milk poured over it. When the filling ingredients differ, not only the flavor but also the way the filling sets during baking changes. Among the strudels enjoyed at festivals and in everyday life across Central Europe, Apfelstrudel is the one with apples as its main filling.

An Immigrant Pastry Rooted in Southern Brazil

Strudel crossed the Atlantic and is also made within the culture of German immigrants in southern Brazil. Nova Petrópolis, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, lists Apfelstrudel as a sweet of the town, which preserves German food culture. In Pomerode, in the state of Santa Catarina, strudel is also served at restaurants offering dishes inherited from immigrants and on tables for visitors.

In São Martinho, in the same state, the menu of a colonial-style café lists a strudel that combines apple and curd cheese. Unlike versions that wrap only apples in thin pastry, it is one local café’s example of pairing tart fruit with cheese.

Family Strudels Carried On After Migration

The apple version has also been handed down as a family taste for holidays. Ahuva Pasow-Whitman’s family has baked a strudel filled with apples and rice for the autumn holiday of Simchat Torah. The recipe she learned from her mother rolls apples, grated with their skins on and squeezed of their juice, together with parboiled rice in pie dough. Even as the family moved to New York, Memphis, and Israel, it remained on the holiday table. The connection to Galicia is described as the family’s conjecture.

In the family of Esther Steinberg, who emigrated from Ukraine to Kansas in the United States, a recipe that combines apples with canned pineapple has been handed down. It was taught along with the technique of spreading hand-stretched dough across the entire table, and the recipe later published by her great-grandson Duff Goldman uses phyllo dough. The fruit is first cooked down and chilled overnight, and fat and breadcrumbs are layered between the thin sheets. The family’s filling of combined fruits has been carried over into a process that uses store-bought thin pastry.

Glossary