Spiced Apple Nut Strudel

I inspired myself!

I wrote about a holiday strudel stand at a fictional Christkindl festival in Grace Haven, then realized I needed to try this... and what fun I had!

I keep nuts in old plastic raisin bins in the freezer. We get those little gray moths in the house sometimes, and I wasn't about to let them into my pecans and walnuts and baklava mix, so the big raisin/Raisinet/Chocolate covered peanut containers work great at keeping large bags fresh and bug free.

Of course someone has to take it on the chin and EAT THE RAISINETS FIRST! :)

I prefer my food to be bug free. Go figure!

I usually use Fillo/Phyllo dough for strudel, but I had a frozen package of Puff Pastry, so I thawed that... And Newsflash!!! We liked it so much better than Fillo dough.

And the nut mix was super easy to make using my food processor

Spiced Apple Nut Strudel

2 cups ground pecans or walnuts (I had more pecans, so I used them)
1 cup shredded or finely chopped apple (I used four smallish apples. 2 big ones would be more than enough.)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (more to taste, if desired)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Hello, MacKenzie!!!

Mix all of that together.

Have 1/4 cup melted butter handy and cinnamon sugar like you'd mix for toast... Or mix 3 tablespoons of sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and you're good to go for sprinkling on top if you don't keep a bowl of cinnamon sugar in the cupboard like I do...

Butter a cookie sheet.

Lay puff pastries out. They're in a "tri-fold" shape so you'll put the filling on the middle third and fold the outside thirds over the filling.

Spoon a thick, wide ribbon of filling across the pastry. (There was enough to make three strudels, and I only had two puff pastries so I used the other filling for nut tarts with leftover pie crust... Although if I didn't have pie crust, I could have made cookie crust in muffin tins. And we kind of just ate the rest and it was amazing!)

Fold sides up and over the filling, overlapping them. Brush generously with melted butter. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar. Make diagonal slits in top from one side to the other.


Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes, until top is puffed and golden brown.  When cooled for ten minutes or so, drizzle vanilla glaze over top. (The strudels had "spread" apart a little so all I had to do was kind of pinch them back together while warm... and then a delicious glaze hides all kinds of stuff!

Vanilla glaze:

2 Tbsp. soft butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Add enough milk (not much!!!) to mix with whisk.... Drizzle over strudel.

Isn't that beautiful? And it melts in your mouth, stuffed with nutty/apple-y goodness. So delicious, and I bet it would freeze well, but honestly, it didn't take much time to make this with the food processor and the puff pastry dough.

It disappeared (there were two, and they were gone in less than a day.) and everyone loved it. I think with a recipe like this you could add raisins, but I know my crew isn't overly fond of raisins (the weirdos!) so the nuts/apples/cinnamon worked just fine.

This is crazy fun/busy time on the farm. Dave and Seth have brought up hundreds and hundreds of squash and even more pumpkins... and the customers are finding us, so that's even more fun!

Blue pumpkins... And then more blue pumpkins!

And company for coffee... actually I think he's guarding my new mug from my friend Debby Giusti! Isn't it beautiful? She knows I love Polish pottery.... How sweet is this?

And what farm would be complete without mud??? 

And that's it from the farm this week...We're awash in pumpkins, cute kids, veggies and blessings! Not a bad life at all! And we've dismantled our Seeker novella collections so the gals can put out their own stories individually, and here are two of my sweet historicals:

His Beloved Bride (Link to Amazon, of course!)

And this one is the first of my "Sewing Sisters Society" stories with Hattie McGillicuddy, one of my favorite characters!

The Pastor Takes a Wife (Also linked to Amazon for Kindle!)

And that's it from upstate! Our kids went back to school yesterday, September 7, and I think we're all ready for schedules and normal... and come next June, we'll be ready for the beautiful break we call summer!

Remember you can friend me on facebook as Ruth Logan Herne, spin by my website or visit me today over in SEEKERVILLE, our multi-author blog about love, romance, God and dealing with everything life hands us. See you... wherever!

Cherry coconut strudel recipe and Happy Fall!!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a strudel recipe to share. Fall has arrived and we're enjoying those chilly evenings. 

The apple orchards have just started selling in bulk so today we went to get some Jonathon and Jonagold and Honey Crisp. Those are just for eating. Although our state is famous for the red delicious and yellow delicious, those aren't the most popular apples here. Early Fuji and Gala are the most popular because they're so good for cooking and eating. Anyway, we haven't made any cider yet, or doughnuts, but that will come soon! 

I have a friend who swears by her slow cooker. So I bought one, and this book. (I had a slow cooker before, but never used it so I gave it to a friend.) Anyway, I bought this book but nothing in there was really for crock pots... Very confusing until I realized that the book was about SLOW COOKING and not crock pot cooking. LOL. The recipes are still good, they just take a really long time. 

We went to a really fun eatery about an hour from us. Fire and Brimstone. Everything comes out of the oven. No French Fries because there's no hot oil! Crazy. But incredibly delicious. 

So, on to the strudel recipe. You need two cups of cherries, pitted. Or, a can of cherry pie filling. We had a terrible year for cherries. Everything froze and instead of our .99 / lb cherries, we had nothing! Tragedy! 

Anyway, the ingredients:

1 egg

pinch of salt

1/2 cup water

Whisk together. 

Make a well with 1 3/4 cup of flour. Pour in the egg mixture.

Make a soft ball of dough.

Kneed for ten minutes or until stretchy and shiny.

Set under a glass bowl for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375F.

 Take a clean, old pillow case. Lay it on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with flour.
                                 
Roll out the dough as thin as possible. It should be nearly translucent. Of course, I didn't get anywhere near that, but I tried. Cover with a wet towel and let it sit for ten minutes. Take it out an spread with the pie cherry mix.

 Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of sweetened coconut.

 Using the sheet, carefully roll the strudel up and form into a crescent. Brush with 4 TBS of melted butter. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until brown on top.

So, this wasn't exactly the flaky strudel I've had but it wasn't horrible, either. Good thing I have a house full of teenagers because they gobbled it up!

                                       

The coconut added a lovely layer of flavor and texture to the strudel.

 

And just in case anyone is tempted to run right into their kitchen and make this, I'll leave you with this picture of my five year old's best friends. He said, "Aren't they beautiful? I have a whole pocketful!" Yikes...

Until next time! Pop on by my Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits page or my blog at The Things that Last!