Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I guess I didn't really know what a strudel was when I first read about the May challenge.


A strudel is made with a basic dough of water, oil, cider vinegar, flour, and salt


rolled thin enough to read a newspaper through


wrapped around a mixture of apple, rum raisins, cinnamon, sugar, walnuts, and bread crumbs,


buttered,


and baked for about 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven.


Mine looks okay, but I did a lot of things that I'm not proud of to achieve this mediocre result.

1. I forgot to put the salt in the dough. And did nothing to fix that.

2. I dumped the cinnamon on the apples before mixing it with the sugar. The cinnamon stuck to exactly two apples and made my life harder in the mixing process.

3. I used prefab bread crumbs. In texture and flavor, they resemble sawdust.

4. I pilfered the raisins (and craisins) from our cereal cabinet. Total, to be exact.

5. In preparation for this photoshoot, I gave myself a classic "Mommy, I cut my bangs" haircut. If you didn't notice, go ahead and scroll back up. I know you want to.

In conclusion, the strudel was fine... but definitely improved with ice cream.

If you want to make your own strudel, follow the link for the hosts' blogs at the top of this post. You certainly don't want to repeat anything I did. :)

So here's my question:

What is the last thing you phoned in?

I want details.

24 comments:

A Slice of Concentrated Love said...

Still looks good to me. But most importantly, next time you do this it will be even better.

Hilary said...

My strudel wasn't great. Your dough looks excellent, though! My dough was absolutely terrible - so bad I wouldn't post the photo.

Anonymous said...

Still looks good :) - sounds like you had quite a few issues. I'm sure it will be better next time (if there is one).

Kate said...

Kudos for trying this one, I never would have. Especially when it came time to pilfer fruit from the cereal box. Was it floor waxing night at HT? I seem to remember that always happening when I really needed something at 3am.

Amanda said...

Slice & Red Deer: My thoughts exactly. It wasn't crazy complicated and the dough-rolling was actually fun, so I do think I'll try it again. :)

Hilary: Oh no! My dough tasted blah without the salt, but at least you can't see that in the picture.

Kate: Oh my word! I hate floor waxing night! One time I fell completely on my ass in HT. And... just Monday the flour buffer guy gave me a look that made me downright uncomfortable.

Amanda said...

Umm... floor buffer. FLOOR.

Rose said...

1. cute shirt!
2. love that your raisins came from cereal!
3. scrolled back up, checked the bangs - they look good to me.

Nice blog btw! I am gonna take a look around :)

Barbara Bakes said...

LOL - I loved that you shared your secrets, especially the raisins from the cereal! Your strudel looks delicious!

doughmesstic said...

You're funny! I like the haircut, BTW. Way better than when I cut mine! So where in VA are you? Probably near DC, judging from your kitchen. Just guessing. Alexandria. Fairfax. Petersburg. Getting close?

And as for "phoned in" does that mean where was I? I phoned my hub from my car last. I last ordered in Pizza, I guess...though that's been a loooong time.

I am working on a VA foodie blogroll - want in? Email your details to VAFOOD at doughmesstic dot com and I will get you on it!

Amber said...

The real question is: what is a struesel?

Unknown said...

Cereal raisins, lol, that made me laugh. I had the sawdust bread crumbs too but I think because I cheated on them. Nice to see your blog, and your dough was delightfully thin!

Amanda said...

I'm glad you guys laughed at my raisin pilfering. :)

Amber: A streusel is a crumb topping made of butter, flour, and sugar (according to Wikipedia). It's the gorgeousness that rockets blueberry muffins to the next level (according to me).

Eva said...

at least i'm not the only one whose didn't come out amazing. hopefully next month will be better.

Ria Mathew said...

LOL! Raising pilfering!! :D Amanda,I really admire blogs which show the process step by step!So much of effort goes in that ( at least you need to be neatly dressed!! :D and I always dress shabby when I'm at work! ;D) Nice chirpy blog!!Thanks a ton for stopping by mine and leaving a lovely comment!!

Anita said...

I didn't really know was strudel was either...it looks amazing!!! Are you for hire?

linda said...

Even though it wasn't up to your expectations, it looks perfect and delicious!

How To Eat A Cupcake said...

Ditto @ doughmesstic... what does "phoned in" mean??? Lol

Amanda said...

Re: doughmesstic and HTEAC: I thought that "phoning it in" was a common phrase that people used or at least understood. I've since quizzed my family. My mom had no idea but my Dad was totally with me. I guess it's not as common as I thought. :)

Something is "phoned in" when it's done but not done well. Urban Dictionary defines phoning it in as "to put in a half assed effort at something, but complete it. Often pertaining to work which is complete and pretending to have worked a long time on, when in fact little to no effort was put into it. Derived from deciding to not physically attend a meeting in, but rather to be present by phone only."

Does that help? :) No wonder no one answered the question. Hahaha...

ice tea: sugar high said...

damn! that looks sooo good. too bad I missed this month's challenge

Paris Pastry said...

I love apple strudel! One of my all-time favorite desserts! Never tried making myself though.

Amanda said...

ice tea & Paris Pastry: Even though I hit some snags, strudel really is a rewarding dessert to make yourself. I do recommend it. :)

Teenie said...

Your strudel looks like it turned out yummy!

You're right about the prefab breadcrumbs. I think that was a problem for me too. It was like sawdust in the strudel. Mine definitely needed ice cream to make it better :)

Ash said...

haha, love the cereal raisin's! Mine was a bit of a flop too. But it still tasted good... I just need to roll my dough a bit thinner!
Great job!

Amber said...

That looks really good! I can't believe you took your raisins out of your cereal box..too funny. :-)

Love the bangs. :-)