Quick and Easy Strudel

with John Mitzewich

Transcript: Quick and Easy Strudel

Hi, I'm Chef John Mitzewich for About.com. Today I'm going to show you how to make strudel. This is an easy recipe and you can use almost any fruit in it. Let's get started.

Peach Strudel Ingredients

I'm going to use:

• 1 1/2 cup sliced fresh peaches
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp flour

We're going to mix that up. Again, you can do this with apples, pears, etc. It also usually contains some dried fruit. So I'm going to add a 1/4 cup of raisins.

Strudel Filling Ingredients

The filling of a strudel has two parts; this is the fruit part, and the other part is this sugar mixture. So combine:

• 1/4 chopped walnuts
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp white sugar

Give that a mix.

Prepare the Premade Strudel Pastry

And there is the pastry - and why this is so easy - we're going to use a sheet of frozen supermarket puff pastry. Put it on a well floured board, with a little more flour over the top. With your rolling pin, we're going to make a rectangle shape. Notice the seams are going in the same direction as we are rolling. We're going to get this about 1/8 inch thick - and a little longer than it is wide.

Don't worry if the ends fray a little bit, as long as the sides are straight. When we roll it you won't see any of that. It will also have a nice side (smoother) and a not so nice side. We're going to do an egg wash, which is one egg and a splash of water.

Assemble the Strudel

With the less attractive side facing up, and the smoother side facing down - egg wash that really well. Put the sugar mixture down on just 2/3rd of the dough. Put the fruit on the bottom 1/3, and leave about a 2 inch space at the bottom and sides.

Fold the Strudel

The folding is very simple. Start by bringing up the first 2 inches - kind of pinch the bottom a little. Roll it over once, that's the second third - pinch in the sides a bit to keep it all together. And then the last fold, and we're going to have a nice completed strudel package. The fold is always down of course.

Bake the Strudel

We're going to place that on our baking sheet, I'm going to use a silicon mat, but you can use parchment paper - these do tend to leak a bit from the fruit. We're going to cut a slice in the top about every inch to give it that signature strudel look, and to vent the air and steam. Paint it very well with egg wash. We're going to put that in a 375 degree F. oven for about 40-45 minutes, until it's browned, beautiful and looks like this.

Serve the Strudel

We had minimal syrup drippage, but that's always going to happen, so don't worry about that, it's all part of the show. Now, if you think the outside looks good - check out the inside! How can you watch this and not want to make that? Again, works with any fruit. Super simple using the supermarket puff pastry. I really hope you give it a try. Enjoy.

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