Purpose of the visit to Gabi’s apple shop, was actually buy some apples and juice, like i always do on Fridays. I love those happy,starry, good luck apples which she has! They smell so good! For some reason, I have had itch to make apple strudel.I am not a great baker. Usually, what ever I bake, turns out to be some sort of disaster!  I decided to give Strudel a try again. For 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 (normal will do too)

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

Filling:

1 kg peeled and chopped apples

1 tbsp brown sugar

5 tbsp amaranth polenta ( wheat polenta 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 separate bowl mix butter,spelt flour,sugar,cinnamon and amaranth polenta. Use your hand. Idea is to have consistency like crumple.

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

3. In separate bowl mix butter,spelt flour,sugar,cinnamon and amaranth polenta. Use your hand. Idea is to have consistency like crumple.

4.If you want to add some 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. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

6.Before starting this step,take care that you have everything ready to go. Filo dough is very thing and dry really fast. When it dry, it breaks! Have your melted butter ready,cinnamon and powder sugar at hand. Take the dough and paste every sheet of filo dough lightly with butter,them sprinkle with powder sugar and cinamon.Lay sheets of filo on top of each other. (This makes your Strudel really scrumptuous.) 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,sprinkle some powder 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 from burning.

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

Vanilla sauce

• 15ml sugar (1 T. can be  vanilla sugar)
• 10ml cornstarch
• 0,5l milk(cream)
• Dash salt
• 1 tbs butter (omit if you opp 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 especially important to stir after the milk becomes hot or you will end up with lumps and burn the bottom of the sauce. If by any change you get lumps in the sauce,there is rescue. Your sauce is not being spoiled! Take your Bamix puree machine and whisk trough 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.