The visit to Gabi’s apple shop was to buy apples and juice like I always do on Fridays. I love those happy, starry, good-luck apples that she has! They smell so good! For some reason, I have had itch to make apple strudel. I am not a great baker. Usually, whatever I bake turns out to be some sort of disaster!  I decided to give Strudel a try again. To my surprise, it turned out to be great. I used ready-made spelt filo dough, which you can get in supermarkets here in Austria. I tried this time, Amaranth-polenta in the filling instead of bead crumbs. Nice.. Whole thing got completely different aspect into it.. And of course Strudel was served with homemade vanilla sauce. What else? Here is the recipe:

1 roll of spelt filo/jufka dough (regular will do too)

Some melted butter to paste filo dough layers with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

Filling:

1 kg peeled and chopped apples

1 tbsp brown sugar

5 tbsp amaranth semolina ( wheat semolina works too)

½ tsp cinnamon

50 g sultanas (optional, I hate sultanas in Strudel so I leave them out)

1 tbsp rum (optional)

5 tbsp butter

3 tbsp spelt flour

1. In a separate bowl, mix butter, spelt flour, sugar, cinnamon, and amaranth polenta. Use your hand. The idea is to have consistency like crumples.

2. Prepare the filling. Peel, de-seed, and slice the apples. I use a mandolin to do this. Add the brown sugar, rum, cinnamon, and amaranth semolina mixture and mix until combined and evenly distributed.

3. In a separate bowl, mix butter,spelt flour, sugar, cinnamon, and amaranth polenta. Use your hand. The idea is to have consistency like crumples.

4. If you want to add raisins to your strudel, place the sultanas and a tbsp of rum in a pot and heat for a few minutes. Set aside and let cool down completely.

5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

6. Before starting this step, ensure you have everything ready. Filo dough is fragile and dries really fast. When it dries, it breaks! Have your melted butter, cinnamon, and powdered sugar ready and at hand. Take the dough and paste every sheet of filo dough lightly with butter, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Lay sheets of filo on top of each other. (This makes your Strudel really scrumptious.) Continue till you have done the same for all the sheets.

7. Cover 1/3 of the pastry with apple filling and sprinkle with raisins if you like. Roll the pastry, starting on the side, covered with apples. Place on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Coat with melted butter, and sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.

8. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour. After 30 minutes, cover the strudel with a sheet of baking paper to prevent it from burning.

9. Remove from the oven and cover with a kitchen cloth to let cool down or enjoy while it’s still warm.

Vanilla sauce

• 15ml sugar (1 T. can be  vanilla sugar)
• 10ml cornstarch
• 0,5l milk(cream)
• Dash salt
• 1 tbsp butter (omit if you are using cream)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla (omit if using vanilla sugar)

PREPARATION

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and a dash of salt in the bottom of a one-quart saucepan. Gradually add the milk, stirring to dissolve.

Cook, stirring, over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. It is crucial to stir after the milk becomes hot, or you will end up with lumps and burn the bottom of the sauce. If by any chance you get lumps in the sauce, there is a rescue. Your sauce is not being spoiled! Take your Bamix puree machine and whisk through once. All lumps are gone!

Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Cool slightly and serve.

Refrigerate leftovers. Serve warm or cold.