Old Fashioned Cherry Strudel
This Old Fashioned Cherry Strudel recipe is filled with dried cherries, grated apples, ginger, cinnamon, and orange zest. Once it’s all rolled up in the thinnest hand-rolled pastry dough you’ll be the star baker in your family!
It’s Pudding Week on the GBBO Beginnings and that just happens to be the season we’re following this Bake-Along. I couldn’t help but choose something that makes people say “That’s a Pudding?”
The Strudel!
I could have gone with a Queen of Pudding but that’s TOO EASY.
What is British Pudding?
That’s a great question! From everything I’ve read on the subject of British Puddings they generally seem to be desserts that don’t fit into any other category. Isn’t that odd?
Things that count as a British Pudding:
- Queen of Pudding with an actual custard base, jam, and meringue
- Steamed Pudding like this Pumpkin Steamed Pudding with Vanilla Hard Sauce
- Sponge Cakes with Sauces or Sticky Toppings
- Boiled Puddings
- Self Saucing Puddings
- This Cherry Strudel
Literally nothing like what Americans consider a pudding. Interesting, isn’t it?
Is This a Hard Strudel Recipe?
Is this Cherry Strudel Recipe hard to make? No, it’s actually kind of easy. You can make the dough and the filling ahead of time, and keep them in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Then with a little perseverance, you’ll be on your way to a most excellent British Pud!
Is Strudel Dough Fragile?
No! The dough, while itself is incredibly thin once rolled completely out, is not a fragile dough. You will be surprised at how much you can stretch and pull this dough.
How to Get Strudel Dough So Thin
Time. Patience. Gluten Development.
Let the dough rest for at LEAST an hour. Lay out a tablecloth on your table and dust it with flour. Get out your rolling pin. Give yourself about 30 minutes for stretching the dough.
Start by greasing up your hands and gently stretch the dough into a rectangle. Once it’s too big to handle lay it out on the prepared cloth. Use the backs of your hands to gently stretch the dough out to about 4 feet long by 18-24 inches wide.
It’s helpful to place one hand on top of the dough and slide the other under the dough, knuckle side up, and lift and stretch.
If you get to a point where it stretches and snaps back, let the dough rest for a few minutes. That rest time will make your dough MORE stretchy!
What if my Strudel Dough Rips?
Not a big deal. Just work around it. Keep stretching all around the hole, just being careful not to tug directly on the hole.
Once you get it as big as you feel you can stretch it you can try to keep rolling with the rolling pin. OR take turns between the two methods.
After you can clearly see through the dough to the tablecloth underneath your dough is probably thin enough. You can work on the edges with your fingers. Working any thick spots with your fingers or the spot roll it with the rolling pin.
No Soggy Bottoms!
What you’re going for in this Strudel Recipe is many thin layers of dough all wrapped around your filling with no leakage. So you know what I’m going to say next right? No Soggy Bottoms!
We love Cherries!
We love all kinds of cherry recipes. From cherry cobblers to cherry pie filling to this cherry slushie recipe. Bing cherries, dried cherries, sour cherries, all the cherries!! In fact we like them so much that we planted a couple of sour cherry trees on our property! They’re just starting to produce so in no time at all we should have fresh sour cherries to make into fabulous recipes.
Cherry Strudel
Ingredients
Strudel Dough
- 2 1/2 cups Bread Flour you CAN use All-Purpose Flour as well
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- extra oil
Cherry Strudel Filling
- 2 cups of dried tart cherries divided–these are lightly sweetened dried cherries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons orange zest
- 1/2-1 teaspoon grated ginger or ginger paste
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 pound apples something tart and fresh like a gala or fuji
- 3 Tablespoons melted butter
Finishing Touches
- 4 Tablespoons melted butter
- 1/2 dry white bread crumbs
- powdered sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- make the dough: put the flour and salt in the bowl of a KitchenAid Mixer, give it a stir
- mix the water, egg yolks, oil, and vinegar together, add to the bowl of the KitchenAid
- stir to form a soft dough
- once the dough comes together let it knead for 8-10 minutes
- then turn the speed up two notches and let it work for another 8-10 minutes until
- lightly oil a clean bowl, add the dough, turn to coat, cover, and store in the fridge for at least an hour
- To Make Filling: put 1 1/2 cups of cherries in the bowl of a food processor, add the sugar, spices, and orange zest, pulse to chop, put it in a bowl
- grate the apple peel and all, squeeze out as much of the moisture as possible
- add the grated apple, the last the whole cherries, and the melted butter to bowl and mix to combine-this mixture can be refrigerated up to 24 hours before being made into a strudel
- To Make Strudel: preheat the oven to 400˚
- Lay out a tablecloth on your table and dust it with flour
- Get out your rolling pin
- Give yourself about 30 minutes for stretching the dough
- grease up your hands and gently stretch the dough into a rectangle to start with
- Once it's too big to handle lay it out on the prepared cloth
- Use the backs your hands to gently stretch the dough out to about 4 feet long by 18-24 inches wide
- It's helpful to place one hand on top of the dough and slide the other under the dough, knuckle side up, and lift and stretch
- If your dough rips, no a big deal, just work around it, keep stretching all around the hole, just being careful not to tug directly on the hole.
- Once you get it as big as you feel you can stretch it you can try to keep rolling with the rolling pin OR take turns between the two methods.
- Once you can clearly see through the dough to the tablecloth underneath, your dough is probably thin enough
- Go around the edges with your fingers and get them as thin as possible
- drizzle the melted butter over the dough and gently spread it around
- then sprinkle with bread crumbs
- put the filling at one short end of the dough
- use the sheet to gently lift the dough and roll it over the filling, keep rolling until you're left with a log like strudel
- pinch and fold each end under the log, making sure to really get it tight so it doesn't leak
- carefully place it on a baking sheet and brush with melted butter
- bake at 400˚ for 30-35 minutes
- when it's done remove it to a baking rack to cool
- sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving
