I'm not German, but I play German in real life: Apple Strudel

Daring Baker's Challenge May 2009: Apple Strudel

Bright copper kettles, crisp apple strudel, doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles...! I couldn't really help it. Compliments of Daring Bakers Challenge, I have had Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things" in my head all month, it seems.

There is one problem with this whole thing - strudel, a paper-thin pastry filled with fruit and nuts - depends exclusively on the properties of gluten, the same protein that makes tummies hurt around here. I have read the results of several other gluten free daring bakers today as they discussed their apple strudel, and I'm not feeling so discouraged anymore.

As my crust, I chose Kate's recipe for Gluten Free Croissants on her website, Gluten Free Gobsmacked. The croissant dough is flaky (you should see the picture she has with her recipe!), and has that same pull-apart-in-layers texture as gluten-filled croissants. The secret is shredded, frozen butter rolled between the layers. I have to admit - freezing a stick of butter and grating it was really fun. I'm not sure how else to describe it. It was just so unusual that I found it very satisfying.

After sprinkling grated butter over the rolled-out pasty, it's important to use the wax paper underneath to fold it in thirds, like a business letter. In my case, it would have been easier if I had used more sweet rice flour under the dough before rolling it out. Kate mentions in her recipe that she used 1 1/2 cups of sweet rice flour for the rolling out of the dough.


After folding into thirds, roll out the dough as thin as possible again. I discovered one challenge - I no longer own a rolling pin. When we went gluten free last summer, that was one thing I tossed (I think I gave it to my parents) without looking back. But, I haven't replaced it yet. I poked around my kitchen looking for a suitable replacement. I thought of using a refrigerated bottle of Martinellis, which would keep the dough colder, but the condensation could have added extra water to the dough and made it too sticky. I settled on a blue Nalgene water bottle, rubbed it down with sweet rice flour, and rolled away. It obviously would have been thinner if I had the proper equipment.


Having never made an apple strudel, I prepared a lower-sugar version of the recipe chosen by the Daring Bakers. I was a little put off by using bread crumbs, because of the bumped-up glycemic factor of the store-bought Ener-G bread crumbs in my cupboard. But, I still tossed them in melting butter and added them to the strudel. Beyond that, my simple filling involved cinnamon, sugar, and a very thinly sliced Granny Smith apple (none of these were exact measurements, but I wanted the sweetness to be very subtle).

I again used the wax paper to assist me in folding the dough up to make the final strudel. It was getting warm in the kitchen, and I needed to get to work, so this is the part when I forgot about my patience. I was trying to slide the strudel off the wax paper onto my silicon baking mat, and it wouldn't come off the wax paper (once again, should have used more sweet rice flour). My boss called me and...ahem...gave me instructions on something I was already familiar with, and I threw patience out the front door. Sadly, my strudel tore across the bottom, but into the oven it went.


It was baked at 400 for 30 minutes, even though I think I could have gone for 25 minutes. It got a little overdone where the edges broke. Sadly, if I had slowed down and figured out how to take it off the wax paper, it would have been beautiful!


I found that the crust was really delicious, and the buttered bread crumbs really added to it. I don't really agree that the crust was strudel-like, because it didn't quite get thin enough. It may be possible with Kate's croissant recipe, but only if you own a rolling pin!

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.