FRIDAY POTPOURRI - MOM VALENCHECK'S STRUDLE

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I went to go see “Julie and Julia” the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. In the spirit of that movie I thought this week’s Friday Potpourri would be a recipe believe it or not – I think a first for this blog.

Mom made her very own version of strudel and I fiddled with it myself so this is probably one of the only nearly original recipes in my bag of tricks. Here’s what you will need for the crust:

2 cups of floUR
Two sticks of butter – YES BUTTER OR DON’T BOTHER
¼ C of water
3 egg yolks (Save the whites for later.)
2 TBLS of vinegar. (I sometimes add vanilla – Mom didn’t approve.)

Cut the butter into flour until it is pea sized and then add the liquids and mix. Divide into 4 – 6 balls and kneed adding required amounts of flour until it no longer sticks (and makes a cool clicking sound in your hand.) Cover and set in the refrigerator for at least as long as it takes you to do the next step or overnight.

Here’s what you need for the filling.

9 apples unless they are gigundous. Mom always used half Jonathon and half Macintosh.
1 cup of sugar
Dash of cinnamon
Lemon Juice (buy a lemon.)
1 cup of crushed cornflakes.

Core, peel, and chop the apples. You could use one of those handy dandy chopping thingys but I like the chunkier more random sizes of apples.

Add all the other ingredients and mix except for the cornflakes.

Preheat oven to 325-350

Roll out the dough ball into a rectangle getting it as thins as possible. It’s best to do it on a sheet because then you can roll it with the filling much more easily and without breaking anything. Scoop out the appropriate percentage of filling along one of the long sides of the dough but not all the way to the sides. Along the side of inside line of the filling make a barricade of crushed cornflakes to act as a barrier to the apple juice. Put some of the egg whites around the edges of the crust and fold over the ends, role into a loaf.

Place on greased tray, swipe the top with more egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 45 min. to an hour or until nicely brown. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

A twist on this is to peel and core the apple, place in the center of a round of the dough, fill the center of the apple sugar, a little cinnamon, and a pat of butter on top. Apply the egg whites as a glue and envelope the apple in the dough. Cover with egg white and sugar. Cook at 350 for hour or until golden brown. Serve hot in a bowl with vanilla ice cream and melted St. Valentine’s Day cinnamon candy hearts as a sauce.