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Pies and Tarts
Italian strudel
Strudel (Pellegrino Artusi's Italian apple strudel flavored with currants, cinnamon and lemon zest)
Originated from: Italy and Europe
Occasion: Any time & special times
Contributed by: Taken from "La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene" compilato da Pellegrino Artusi (1891, 1907)

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Ingredients

For pastry dough
250 grams (about 8 3/4 ounces) flour
warm milk
a piece of butter the size of a walnut
1 egg
pinch of salt

For filling
500 grams (about 16 ounces) reinette apples or any good quality apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
100 grams (about 3 1/2 ounces) butter, melted
85 grams (about 3 ounces) dried currants
85 grams (about 3 ounces) powdered sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 or 3 pinches of ground cinnamon

For brushing
butter

Original Italian text
Mele reinettes, o mele tenere di buona qualitya, grammi 500
Farina, grammi 250
Burro, grammi 100
Uva di Corinto, grammi 85
Zucchero in polvere, grammi 85
Raschiatura di un limone
Cannella in polvere due o tre prese



Directions

Make a rather firm dough with the flour, warm milk, a piece of butter about the size of a walnut, an egg, and a pinch of salt.

Let the dough rest a little before rolling it out as thin as that used for taglierini noodles.

Cover the sheet of dough with a layer of apples (peeled, cored and thinly sliced), leaving the edges free.

Scatter the currants, lemon zest, cinnamon, sugar and finally the 100 grams of melted butter over the layer of apple slices. Reserve a little of the butter for use later.

Roll up the dough with the filling to form a cylinder.

Brush the leftover melted butter on the dough.

Place in a greased copper baking pan and bake.



Original Italian text

Spegnete la farina con latte caldo, burro, quandto una noce, un uovo e un pizzico di sale per farne una pasta piuttosto soda che lascierete riposare un poco prima diservirvene. Tirate con questa pasta una stoglio sottite come quella dei taglirini e, lasciado gli orli scoperti, distendetevi sopra le mele che avrete pri ma sbucciate nettate dai torsoli e tagliate a fette soi tili. Sul suolo delle mele spargete l'uva, la raschitura di limone, la cannella, lo zucchero e infine i 100grammi di burro liquefatto, lasciandone un po indietro per l'uso che sentirete Cio ftto, avvolgete la sfogliaspra se stessa per formarne un totolo ripieno che adatterete in una teglia di rame, gia unta col burro, assecondandoper ncessita la forma rotonda della medesima; col burro avanzato ungete tutta la parte esterna del dolce o sultanina, e diversa dall uva passonlina. Questa e piecola e nerva; l'atra e il doppio piu grossa, di colorecastagno chiaro e senza vinacciuoli anch essa. Il limone raschiatelo con un vetro.








Notes

The recipe in this entry was taken from "La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene manuale Pratico per le Famiglie" compilato da Pellegrino Artusi. The book was first published in 1891. Since then many Italian editions have been published. English translations of this cookbook under the title "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well" are available. At www.archive.org Olga Ragusa's selection of recipes from Pellegrino's famous Italian cookbook can be found in its entirety (It's free to download). Her selection entitled, "The Italian Cook Book," was first published in 1945 by S.F. Vanni.... The following text comes from Wikipedia: "An apple strudel Origin Place of origin Austria Details Type Pastry Main ingredient Filo pastry A strudel is a type of layered pastry with a sweet?filling. It is often served with cream. It became popular in the 18th century through the Habsburg Empire. Strudel is most often associated with Austrian cuisine but is also a traditional pastry in the whole area of the former Austro-Hungarian empire. The oldest Strudel recipe (a millirahmstrudel) is from 1696, in a handwritten recipe at the Viennese City Library, Wiener Stadtbibliothek. The pastry descends from similar Near Eastern pastries (see baklava and Turkish cuisine). Etymology Strudel is an English loanword from German. The word derives from the German word Strudel, which in Middle High German literally means 'whirlpool' or 'eddy'. In Hungary, it is known as rtes, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia as trudla or savijača, in Slovenia astrudelj or zavitek, in the Czech Republic as zvin or trdl,in Poland and Romania as ștrudel, and in Slovakia as trdľa or zvin. The pastry The best-known strudels are Apfelstrudel (German for apple strudel) and Topfenstrudel (with sweet soft quark cheese, in German Topfen cheese), followed by the Millirahmstrudel (Milk-cream strudel, Milchrahmstrudel). In Slovenia, cottage cheese is used instead of quark. Other strudel types include sour cherry (Weichselstrudel), sweet cherry, nut filled (Nussstrudel), Apricot Strudel, Plum Strudel, poppy seed strudel (Mohnstrudel), and raisin strudel.There are also savory strudels incorporating spinach, cabbage, pumpkin, and sauerkraut, and versions containing meat fillings like the (Lungenstrudel) or (Fleischstrudel). Traditional Austrian and Czech Strudel pastry is different from strudels elsewhere, which are often made from puff pastry. The traditional Strudel pastry dough is very elastic. It is made from flour with a high gluten content, egg, water, and butter with no sugar added. The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly with the help of a clean linen tea towel[11] or kitchen paper. Purists say (hyperbolicly) that it should be so thin that you can read a newspaper through it. A legend has it that the Austrian Emperor's perfectionist cook decreed that it should be possible to read a love letter through it. The thin dough is still laid out on a tea towel, and the filling is spread on it. The dough with the filling on top is rolled up carefully with the help of the tea towel and baked in the oven......." P.S. I tried this recipe and found the filling for the strudel very good. The use of currants makes it colorful and tasty. Photo and notes: Mary Melfi.

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