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This is a perfect Christmas party dessert, which
gives you the real taste and flavors of the festive season it also
perfect for a buffet lunch. If you hate making and eating pastry and
want something very simple and easy to make than this is the one you
can try at home bright up your Christmas mood.
- 4 Bramley or Granny Smith cooking apples, weighing about
1-1/4 pounds
- 8 oz mincemeat
- 4 oz almonds or pecans, chopped and lightly toasted under the
grill, or 2 oz walnuts (but do not toast them)
- 1 heaping teaspoon soft brown sugar
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1/2 level teaspoon ground mixed spice
- 1/2 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 oz (25 g) white breadcrumbs
- 2 oz (50 g) unsalted butter
- 4 sheets strudel pastry (from a defrosted 1 lb pack)
- Powdered confectioner's sugar
Method :
- Pre-heat the oven to 375°F
- Generously grease a large heavy baking sheet (15 x 11)
- Peel and core the apples and slicing them very thinly into a
large bowl, sprinkling in the sugar as you slice. Then add the
mincemeat, orange and lemon zest, spices and half the nuts. Mix
thoroughly.
- In a small bowl mix together the remaining and breadcrumbs.
- Melt the butter. Now you are ready for the pastry. Remove
your first sheet from the pack and arrange it over the baking
sheet; it will overlap it but that doesn't matter.
- Brush the entire sheet with melted butter, then sprinkle one
third of the nuts and breadcrumb mixture all over. Put the
second sheet directly over the first and repeat exactly. Then
the third sheet followed by the butter and the last of the
almonds and breadcrumbs. Now put the last sheet of pastry on top
of the rest, brush with butter, and place the apple and
mincemeat filling all along the pastry lengthways in a band
about 3 and 1/2 inches from the edge of the baking sheet.
- Now imagine you're making a giant sausage roll and begin by
bringing one edge of the pastry leaves lengthways over the
filling and the other edge up and over that. Turn the whole
thing over so that the pastry join is underneath and place the
strudel centered on the baking sheet. Now pinch the ends
together and tuck them under, making a sausage about 14 inches
long. Brush the whole surface with the remaining butter and bake
in the center of the oven for 40-45 minutes or until it turns a
golden-brown.
- Cool the strudel for 15 minutes, then dust it thickly with
powdered sugar and serve cut into slices with ice cream or
chilled whipped cream.
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