Pregnant Foodie: Apple and Sultana Strudel

I have a real sweet tooth, even more so in the latter stages of pregnancy, but I’m in no way a baker. I don’t have the patience or precision when it comes to cooking, which is essential when baking as we can all probably admire from the Great British Bake Off.

I do love a good pastry (cinnamon swirls are my absolute favourite) and find the ready made pastry packs the ideal solution to my baking laziness when I really get the urge to knock something up at home – it’s hard to go wrong with the filling and the technical bit of the pastry is done for you! I love apple-filled desserts too so when I uncovered a spare pastry pack in the freezer I took the opportunity to make something Autumnal and apple-y, and created a little Apple and Sultana Strudel.

I found a hundred recipes online but was looking for one without butter (the only thing I didn’t have in the fridge) so have merged a few recipes to create my own easy one:

Ingredients:

• Two large apples (I used Cox), peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• Two tbsp light brown sugar
• One tbsp plain flour (plus extra for flouring)
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Half a tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• Handful of sultanas
• 1 egg beaten with a tbsp cold water
• Pack of puff pastry (pre-rolled is easier!)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7
2. Mix your sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl, squeeze in the lemon juice and add the vanilla extract if you’re using.
3. Add the apples and sultanas and stir until all of the apple slices are coated in the mix (which should only be slightly wet). Set aside. 
4. If you’re using a block of pastry (rather than a pre-rolled one), flour a flat and clean surface and put your defrosted pastry block on it. Add some flour to your rolling pin and roll the pastry out flat, to around a £1 coin thickness and into a rough rectangle shape. 
5. With the short side of the rectangle closest to you, spoon the apple mix onto the lower half of the pastry, leaving around 1 inch around the edge.
6. Starting at the edge closest to you, roll the pastry sheet with the mixture inside, then turn the ends under to seal your log – it doesn’t have to be neat! 
7. Put the log, pastry seam side down, on a baking tray covered in baking parchment or well oiled with butter.
8. Brush the beaten egg all over and use a knife to add some slits into the top of the log – don’t cut all the way through, just score the surface. 
9. Chuck in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is hot all the way through.

The burnt looking bits are in fact, burnt bits. I tried adding some brown sugar to the strudel before putting in the oven, which promptly burnt. That teaches me for going off-piste. Easily rectified with a little scraping, you’d never have known if I hadn’t told you!

Eat warm or leave to cool, whichever you prefer – I later heated a piece in the microwave and ate with some caramel ice cream. It’s not pretty or neat but it was a slice of Autumn heaven!!