Strudelicious

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.

Coming from a very German community, strudel was ever present during apple season in the Fall. But because I don't like cooked raisins, I was never a huge fan. Thanks to this month's challenge, I was able to make strudel the way I like it. And in a nod to spring, I added strawberry and rhubarb to the requisite (at least in our city) apple filling.

Surprisingly the dough was a treat to work with in terms of stretchability. It was almost too pliable - I found many a time my sides got stuck together when I was done stretching and put it back on the table. I got very few holes but I must not have wrapped it too well because during the baking process it split open on one side and a lot of the strawberry juices came out. So, unfortunately, I didn't give Jason much too work with during shooting (beige on beige!) but he did great with what he had.

I'm glad I had the chance to work with strudel dough but I'm not sure that I'll do it again. I found it lost its crispiness and flakiness pretty soon after baking and I didn't love it so much that I'd want to do it at the last minute for best results. If I'm going to be running around baking right before guests come over, it needs to be an "out of the park" experience and this was maybe a base hit, both in terms of taste and presentation. If you want a similar fruit dessert but with more shelf life, I would recommend the Danish from one of the last summer's DB challenges.

Kelly