{"id":8294,"date":"2026-10-19T15:18:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8294"},"modified":"2026-10-31T19:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T10:09:46","slug":"apfelstrudel","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/apfelstrudel\/","title":{"rendered":"Apfelstrudel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/em> means apple and Strudel<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

Rolling Thinly Stretched Dough to Create Layers<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 (Bl\u00e4tterteig<\/em>), which produces layers and a texture different from those of dough stretched by hand into a single sheet.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cross-section showing apples and raisins within layers of thin pastry. Photo: Burkhard M\u00fccke, 2014-12-10, location unknown. Original image<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Downscaled version from the distributing source; no additional processing.<\/p>\n

\n\"Dough\n
Dough stretched thin on a cloth (October 6, 2014, location unknown). In the center, the cloth underneath shows through, while the edges remain thicker. Photo: Karen and Brad Emerson, \u201cstretched dough\u201d \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a>. Image obtained as distributed by Commons. No content alterations or cropping were made for this use.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Toasted Breadcrumbs Absorb the Apple Juice<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) is one example. Other methods use only toasted breadcrumbs, without hazelnuts.<\/p>\n

In some examples, dried sponge cake is crumbled finely and spread on the dough. In Tomizawa Shoten\u2019s recipe, the sponge cake is dried and pressed through a sieve, placed on the thinly stretched dough, and then topped with the apples.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A slice served at a caf\u00e9 in Vienna. Thinly layered apples and pastry are visible. Photo: Geolina163, 2023-05-21, Caf\u00e9 Sperl, Vienna. Original image<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Downscaled version from the distributing source; no additional processing.<\/p>\n

Rolling with a Cloth and Closing Both Ends<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Milk and Apple Versions in Old Cookbooks<\/h2>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

In the 18th century, recipes appear for rolling apples, rice, cheese, nuts, vegetables, and other fillings. Anna Dorn\u2019s cookbook Neuestes Universal- oder Gro\u00dfes 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.<\/p>\n

There is also a legend that Empress Maria Theresa of the Habsburg Monarchy (1717\u20131780) 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.<\/p>\n

Two Theories on the Spread of Thin Pastry Dough<\/h2>\n

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 r\u00e9tes<\/em> in Hungarian has also been made. Austria\u2019s traditional food register notes that a 1699 cookbook also used the term \u201cSpanish dough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Regional Methods Using Cream, Milk, and Cheese<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

An Immigrant Pastry Rooted in Southern Brazil<\/h2>\n

Strudel crossed the Atlantic and is also made within the culture of German immigrants in southern Brazil. Nova Petr\u00f3polis, 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.<\/p>\n

In S\u00e3o Martinho, in the same state, the menu of a colonial-style caf\u00e9 lists a strudel that combines apple and curd cheese. Unlike versions that wrap only apples in thin pastry, it is one local caf\u00e9\u2019s example of pairing tart fruit with cheese.<\/p>\n

Family Strudels Carried On After Migration<\/h2>\n

The apple version has also been handed down as a family taste for holidays. Ahuva Pasow-Whitman\u2019s 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\u2019s conjecture.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s filling of combined fruits has been carried over into a process that uses store-bought thin pastry.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

\u2022 R\u00e9tes<\/strong>: A Hungarian pastry made by rolling thin dough. Theories of transmission cite it as a point of contact with Austria.\n\u2022 Baklava: A pastry from West Asia and the surrounding region made by layering and baking thin dough. Some versions are stacked in layers and cut into pieces; others are made by rolling stacked dough.\n\u2022 Strudel dough (stretched dough): Dough that is kneaded, rested, and stretched thin by hand. Its method differs from that of layers created by folding in fat.\n\u2022 Laminated puff pastry \/ Bl\u00e4tterteig: Dough in which dough and fat are layered, folded, and rolled out to create many layers.\n\u2022 Topfen: The name used in Austria and elsewhere for a quark-type fresh cheese.\n\u2022 Nova Petr\u00f3polis: A town in Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil that preserves the culture of German immigrants.\n\u2022 Pomerode: A town in Santa Catarina in southern Brazil, where strudel is enjoyed as one of the immigrant dishes.\n\u2022 Curd cheese: A soft cheese made by coagulating milk. On the S\u00e3o Martinho menu, it is paired with apple.\n\u2022 Anna Dorn: The cookbook author who presented an apple version made with strudel dough in an 1827 Viennese cookbook.\n\u2022 Maria Theresa: An 18th-century Habsburg monarch. According to legend, she popularized strudel at court.\n\u2022 Ahuva Pasow-Whitman: A tradition-bearer who recorded the apple-and-rice holiday pastry of her family, which moved from the United States to Israel.\n\u2022 Esther Steinberg: A baker who emigrated from Ukraine to the United States and passed on to her family an apple-and-pineapple filling and the technique of stretched dough.\n\u2022 Duff Goldman: An American pastry chef. He published a recipe based on the family tradition of his great-grandmother Esther.\n\u2022 Simchat Torah: A Jewish holiday celebrating the completion of the yearly cycle of Torah readings and the start of the reading once again.\n\u2022 Phyllo: Dough rolled out extremely thin. In one method, several sheets are stacked with fat and breadcrumbs between them and rolled around a filling.\n\u2022 Habsburg Monarchy: The territories ruled by the House of Habsburg, centered on Austria and including various regions of Central Europe.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n
  1. \n

    Tomizawa Shoten, \u201cBasic Apfelstrudel\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Crumbs of dried sponge cake, hand-stretched dough, and the process of rolling with a cloth.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  2. \n

    Editor\u2019s note: The menus of present-day shops in Brazil show current examples of what is served; they do not indicate the thickness of the dough or the recipes immigrants brought with them at the time.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  3. \u2022 Austrian Federal Ministry, Register of Traditional Foods No. 177, \u201cApfelstrudel, Milchrahmstrudel, Topfenstrudel\u201d<\/a> \u2014 \u00a7Geschichte \/ Wortherkunft \/ Historische Strudelrezepturen \/ Herstellung. Describes the spread of the dough as following multiple routes and qualifies the Maria Theresa claim with \u201cangeblich\u201d (allegedly). Supports the 1696 milk version, Dorn\u2019s 1827 apple version, regional differences, and methods. This is a secondary compilation revised in 2023; the original editions of the old cookbooks have not been checked against it. The passage stating that the Ritz Paris adopted the pastry in the first half of the 19th century is not adopted because it contradicts the hotel\u2019s opening year.\n\u2022 Austrian National Library, bibliographic record of Anna Dorn\u2019s cookbook<\/a> \u2014 Author, full title, publication in 1827, and holdings. This does not represent a viewing of the relevant recipe in the original edition.\n\u2022 Ritz Paris official FAQ<\/a> \u2014 The hotel opened in 1898. Consulted to assess the chronological inconsistency in the federal ministry register\u2019s statement about the Ritz in the first half of the 19th century.\n\u2022 Austria Tourism, \u201cViennese Apple Strudel\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Breadcrumbs and nuts, the position of the filling, and the different wrapping methods and brushing materials for stretched dough and puff pastry.\n\u2022 Jewish Food Society, \u201cA Simchat Torah Tradition That Was Nearly Lost\u201d and the family recipe<\/a> \/ Apple Strudel<\/a> \u2014 The holiday, the family\u2019s rice-and-apple style, and the migration route. The Galician origin is the family\u2019s conjecture.\n\u2022 Jewish Food Society, \u201cDuff Goldman Recalls His Great-Grandmother\u2019s Baking Recipes\u201d<\/a> \/ Apple Strudel<\/a> \u2014 The stretched dough and pineapple handed down from Esther, and the later generation\u2019s recipe using phyllo dough. This is the record of a single family and does not represent all immigrant households.<\/p><\/li>

  4. \u2022 Rio Grande do Sul State Tourism Office, \u201cNova Petr\u00f3polis\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The town\u2019s immigrant culture and present-day Apfelstrudel. This is a guide to contemporary food culture, not a historical source on when the pastry was brought over.\n\u2022 Santa Catarina State Legislative Assembly, \u201cPomerode, a tradi\u00e7\u00e3o e os costumes alem\u00e3es para o fomento do turismo\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Strudel as an immigrant dish and the places where it is served. Does not specify the shape or the dough.\n\u2022 S\u00e3o Martinho Municipal Tourism Portal, \u201cFluss Haus Land\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The apple-and-curd-cheese style served at a local caf\u00e9. This is an example from an individual caf\u00e9\u2019s menu, not a general historical type.<\/p><\/li>

  5. Editorial Notes (Japanese-Language Re-edit)<\/h3><\/li>

  6. 1827 is the year Dorn\u2019s cookbook was published, not evidence that Apfelstrudel was invented that year. No contemporary menus or recipes showing that Maria Theresa invented the apple version have been confirmed. Neither the order in which thin pastry dough spread between regions nor the theory that a single person brought the modern apple version has been established. The main text retains both the legends and the historical uncertainties.<\/p><\/li>

  7. \u2022 Turkish Geographical Indication Registration, \u201cErzurum Pekmezli Baklavas\u0131\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Some baklava takes a form in which 3 thin sheets are stacked and rolled. Lines 27\u201330 and 51\u201360 of the original text were read directly this time under Independent 136. The article does not define baklava as a pastry that is never rolled.<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A thin dough is spread out wide, topped with apples, and rolled up. Apfelstrudel is a fruit pastry loved at Austrian tables and in caf\u00e9s. In the cut surface, lines of dough can be seen surrounding the generous apple filling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6886,"menu_order":49,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Apfelstrudel","subtitle":"A Central European pastry of apples rolled in thinly stretched dough","topics":"Hand-stretched dough \/ Apples \/ Breadcrumbs \/ Spread across Central Europe","country":"Austria","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["fruit","butter"],"texture":[],"occasion":[],"method":["baked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[151],"class_list":["post-8294","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"manual","sweetlore_related_articles":[8313,8248,8249,8250,8251,8254,8255,8257]},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t