Marillenstrudel | Austrian Apricot Strudel

This month, for the International Food Challenge, we are cooking from the Austrian cuisine. The regional cuisine we are exploring is from Lower Austria, which is the north eastern most state of Austria. Lower Austria cuisine is striking for the differences within its regional cuisine due to its size and the variety of its landscape. Briju is the host for this month and she selected four popular and famous recipes from Lower Austria. Out of them, I chose to make this Apricot Strudel.

A strudel is a type of layered pastry with a— most often sweet—filling and is most often associated with Austrian and German cuisine. Marillenstrudel is a popular strudel from Lower Austria. 'Marillen' is the Austrian term for apricots. Lower Austria, is famous for fruits, in particular its apricots which are known to be the best and finest tasting. This strudel is a light dessert and tastes best when served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream.

MARILLENSTRUDEL / AUSTRIAN APRICOT STRUDEL RECIPE Ingredients: 1 sheet puff pastry
500 gms apricots, cored and cubed
75 gms butter
60 gms breadcrumbs
60 gms ground hazelnuts
60 gms brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 vanilla bean, scraped
10 ml milk for pastry dough

Directions:1. Melt butter in a pan and add breadcrumbs, hazelnuts and sugar. Stir until mixture is lightly toasted and fragrant.

2. Remove from heat and add cinnamon and vanilla bean scrapings. Stir until evenly distributed.

3. Preheat oven to 180 C | 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the puff pastry sheet on the baking sheet.

4. Brush sides of pastry with milk. Place apricot cubes on 2/3 of the pastry, leave sides free. Sprinkle bread crumb-hazelnut-sugar mixture over apricots.

5. Fold in pastry sides and start to roll dough into strudel-shape. Press seam of dough firmly together so the strudel is closed on all sides.

6. Brush surface with milk and bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes until lightly brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

My Notes:1. Use apricots that are sweet but not too soft.

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