Hi, this recipe is from the Guardian's 'Feast' magazine, issue 205, Saturday 18th December 2021, page 17 by Benjamina Ebuehi. You can also find the original recipe in bold below and online here. Also, I made my own puff pastry for this recipe, find the recipe I used here.
This recipe was really fun to make, I find making desserts is (most of the time) very rewarding as it gives a lovely end product, that as you do more baking, looks more and more smart. This was my first time doing the lattice work on top of the strudel, I think it went okay, but could've been better, so I've linked a video below for you to watch if you are also new to it, as for me I think if I'd have seen it being done before attempting it, it could've gone better. Also, with this cake, I advise when putting together, after the pastry has been rolled out, you move it straight to the baking tray you're going to use as, when I tried to move mine from the worksurface to the tray, it became a bit misshaped, which was a shame. As well as this, because I made my own pastry, something I don't do often but enjoy doing, I had leftover pastry, which I used to make some mini apple and mincemeat pies and some apple, almond and honey pies too. See below for what to do with various leftovers. You can serve this warm or cool, with or without custard, cream or ice cream, it would even be nice with a compote I think.
Enjoy!
Hazel :)
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| The whole strudel baked really well, the burnt bits are just where the frangipane has oozed out of the lattice-work a bit, they can easily be removed if desired. |
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A slice with custard.
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| A slice of strudel. |
Dietary Info:
-Suitable for Vegetarians
-Contains Dairy
{Buy a vegan puff pastry sheet, or if making your own, substitute the butter for vegan block butter e.g. Flora. To make the frangipane, use aquafaba in place of the egg (if allergic) (3-4tbsp) and the same butter as above in it also. Check the mincemeat is dairy-free also, if not use my recipe here.}
-Contains Gluten
{If possible, find a gluten-free pre-made puff pastry, if this is not available, make your own. I haven't made g-f puff before, so you'll have to let me know how it goes. BBC Goodfood usually has good recipes, so I would look there for recipes. In the frangipane, switch out plain flour for 2tbsp of g-f plain flour, e.g. Doves farm. Double check your mincemeat, mine was from Tesco and was g-f.}
-Unsuitable for Vegans
{See 1st point, and double check the mincemeat you use.}
-Contains Nuts
{Frangipane without the almonds wouldn't really be frangipane, but, if you really want to make this recipe, I would suggest trying out Good Housekeeping's recipe for the 'frangipane'.}
-Pudding
-Snack
Prep: 40 min {If you are making your own puff pastry, it will take longer.}
Cook: 35 min
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients:
For the frangipane
-70g unsalted butter, softened {I used Clover Spread.}
-70g caster sugar
-1/2tsp ground cardamom {If you only have the pods, de-shell them and crush in a pestle and mortar until you get the required amount.}
-1 large egg, plus 1 egg extra, beaten, for the egg wash
-110g ground almonds
-2tsp plain flour {I only had in self-raising, so I used that.}
-1/4tsp salt
-1 x 320g sheet puff pastry {I made my own, see here.}
-2tsp demerara sugar {I used soft brown sugar.}
-Icing sugar, to dust (optional)
For the filling:
-2 eating apples
-275g mincemeat {You can either make your own (I didn't this time) or buy a jar.}
Method:
1: Heat the oven to 200℃/180℃ fan/390℉/gas 6 and line an oven tray with baking paper. To make the frangipane, beat the butter, sugar and cardamom until creamy and well combined. {The batter should be lighter in colour, as you have incorporated ait into it.} Mix in the large egg, then stir in the ground almonds, flour and salt, until smooth. {Mine looked a bit grainy but I couldn't get out the last bits, however, when cooked this wasn't a problem.}
2: Peel {Only if you want to.} and core the apples, then cut them in half, slice thinly into half-moons and set aside.
3: Unroll the pastry on to the lined tray (if you’re using a block of pastry, rather than a ready-rolled sheet, roll it out to 35cm x 23cm first). Spread the frangipane {Use all of it, even though it may feel like a lot, it's fine.} down the middle, leaving just under a third of the pastry clear on each side. {I found that I achieved the best results with an angled palette knife for spreading here.} Top with the mincemeat, {Again use all of it.} spreading it evenly over the frangipane, then arrange the sliced apples neatly on top, overlapping them slightly. {If you cut the apple too thinly, it may be hard to get all the slices on the strudel, so if you have any left-overs don't worry. See below for my top-tips.}
4: Cut both exposed sides of the pastry on the diagonal into 1½cm-2cm wide strips. Starting from the top of one side, lift a strip of pastry over and across the filling, then alternate the strips over each other in a lattice pattern until you get to the bottom. {Mine started off okay for this, then got worse, I'm not sure why. I would advise you watch a YouTube video (watch from 4:30) on this before attempting it or reading a blog with pictures.} Trim off any excess and pinch the ends to seal.
5: Brush the exposed surface of the pastry with egg wash, sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake for 35-40 minutes, until deeply golden. Remove and leave to cool for 10 minutes, then cut into slices and dust with icing sugar, if you like. Serve warm with cream or custard. {We did with custard and also cold without.}
What to do with leftovers? by Hazel
1) Mincemeat:
If you only have leftover mince meat, you could bake it into a mincemeat cake, use it in some mince pies (you can use a shortcrust, puff, or even gingerbread biscuit dough as a case) or stir it into a bread and butter pudding.
2) Apples:
Bake them on a low heat to get dried apple rings, or make them crispy for apple crisps, if you have any pastry left, add them into some apple pies, or make an apple crumble if you have loads, if you only have a few, make a single portion crumble, use a little ramekin dish for them. Or, use them in an apple pie smoothie.
3) Pastry:
Make some puff-pastry palmiers and fill with whatever you like! e.g. pesto, tapenade, cheese, jam, Nutella, marmite, nuts etc... Make some little cheese straws, by incorporating some cheese into the dough and then twisting them, make a few little pies in a cupcake or muffin tray.
**For me, I had some mincemeat in the jar, as I brought a larger jar than required, puff pastry and apple slices. So I made some apple and mincemeat pies, and when the mincemeat ran out, made 3 more apple, honey and almond pies.**
While you're here...
I have a Pinterest for all my recipes, where you can save them to boards for the future and categorise them into different types of recipe e.g Sunday Dinners, picnic ideas etc. My account is @hazellikestocook, or find the link below. Also, I have a whole blog post explaining this in more detail here and https://hazelscookingandbakingblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/pinterest.html.
https://pin.it/5xDvARk - my profile
This recipe:
https://pin.it/p6c0uZ3
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