Some clichés are clichés for a reason. This here is certainly one of them. While you think Appel Strudel on a site featuring Viennese food is almost sketchy, you may want to start thinking of why any tourist returning from Vienna talks about this treat.
In the end, I think it would be just awfully impolite not to share this outstanding piece of dessert with you. Hell, it took Austria at least two dynasties of decadent monarchs to come up with delicious treats like that while ignoring things like international relations and world politics. It would be a shame if this would go to waste then.
Telling the story of how to recreate this Viennese marvel dish is kind of a challenge though, as it necessarily means picking from an awful lot of recipe variations developed over the years. So I’ll go with a source you can never be wrong: Found inan old family recipe book in my grandmothers kitchen.
However, my granny is a down-to-earth person, and therefore, she would always take some shortcuts. For example, she would never brush the stretched dough with melted butter – no, of course not, that would be way too much work. Still, I have to insist, not to skip this step as the melted butter separates the thin layers of dough and yields in a super flaky crust.
So here you go. Enjoy this classic Li’l Vienna recipe!
This is the new recipe for apple strudel – including walnuts. Try it some time!
Update 10/25/2018: In addition to this Original Viennese Apple strudel, I added a new tutorial on how to make homemade apple strudel here. The main difference between this and the new recipe is the addition of walnuts and and the cutback of butter and breadcrumbs. I also added a few more pictures on how to prepare the filling.
>> Update 10/02/2018: I’ve posted a detailed step-by-step recipe about how to make a paper-thin strudel dough from scratch. I’m using the same ingredients as below but I’ve added more pictures and the description is more detailed.
Combine all dough ingredients and knead the dough until smooth for about 10 minutes. Slam the dough onto the worksurface a few times to enhance gluten development, yielding a very elastic dough.
Shape the dough into a smooth ball. Brush a clean bowl with oil, put the dough into the bowl and brush it with oil (you can do this with your fingers). Let it rest for 1 hour covered with cling wrap or make it up to 2 days ahead and keep it in the fridge.
Find the step-by-step recipe about how to make homemade paper-thin strudel dough here (update 10/02/2018).
The filling consits of buttered breadcrumbs mixed with sugar and cinnamon, melted butter for brushing, sliced apples and soaked raisins.