A few weeks ago I met a friend in town and we went to a restaurant. The main course was really nice but the dessert was something very special. It was an apricot strudel with tonka bean flavoured ice cream and custard. The inside of the strudel wasn’t normal either, I could taste a kind of marzipan flavour throughout. It had rough chopped almonds in it as well. I went home and on the train I immediately decided I had to bake a strudel just like that one. As usual, there wasn’t any time right away to sit down with pen and paper (yes old school) and write down some recipes ideas. Eventually I did sit down however, to write down two recipe ideas. Instead of apricots I also decided to go for apples as they are currently in season. On the first try, the strudel turned out nice, but didn’t taste quite right in comparison to the one I had at the restaurant. The second recipe however, was bang on!  That’s the recipe I want to share with you now – and trust me, it’s so good I have made it twice since then!

Apple strudel for two

60g butter

30g sugar

1 egg

1/2 tbsp flour

1 tsp cornflour 

Pinch of cinnamon 

20g ground almonds

35g chopped almonds

1/2 apple peeled and diced

2 sheets filo pastry, folded in half

2 pie dishes 10cm, greased with oil

Cream butter and sugar until pale. Add egg, flours and cinnamon and mix well. Fold in the ground almonds, chopped almonds and the diced apples.

Line each pie dish with one folded sheet of filo brick. Divide the filling in half and fill into the prepared pie dishes. Bush the overlapping pastry with oil on the inside then fold it over the filling, tucking the edges into the sides of the pie form. Brush with some oil and bake in a preheated oven at 180℃ for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

The strudel can be served warm or cold. Dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla custard.

 

Buon Appetite!