Alpina inspired apple studel

One of my earliest memories of childish independence was being allowed to walk with my brother to a parade of shops about five minutes away from our house.  There was a little bakery/café at the end of the parade called the Alpina.  Run by a smiley Swiss women, I remember cuckoo clocks, pine tables, benches and pictures of snowy alps.  Did the staff wear lederhosen and have long blond plaits? Probably not, but for the purposes of my memory they certainly did.   Hot chocolate and apple strudel was my order of choice.  It never occurred to me to try and construct a pastry of such complexity as an apple strudel, layers flaky, crunchy and chewy all at the same time.  It never occurred to me, that is, until I bought a book for Giselle when she was about six.  “Cooking with kids”  by Linda Collister.  It not only had a recipe but had one of those wonderful step by step set of pictures.  I realised that maybe this cake was not beyond me.   A few weeks ago I found myself driving through my old town, the parade of shows is still there and to my utter amazement so was the Alpina.  Next time I am down that way I will be paying a visit. This is how I make apple strudel.  

• 200g of readymade filo pastry
• 9 amoretti biscuits
• 4 good eating apples
• 50g of caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 75g of butter
• 3 table spoons of Sarah’s mincemeat (see earlier blog post) or if you don’t have any use 3 table spoons of raisins.
• Icing sugar

Crush the amoretti biscuits in a plastic bag.  Peel the apples core and cut into chunks, mix the cinnamon and sugar.  Melt the butter.  Once you have all the filling prepared lay out the filo pastry on a work surface in a large overlapping rectangle.  Brush about half the melted butter on the base, then sprinkle the amoretti crumbs, the mincemeat or raisins, the apple, and the sugar and cinnamon.  Leave a good margin of about 3 cm all the way round the pastry.  Next fold the margins over the edge of the mixture and finally carefully roll your strudel up.  Brush the rest of the melted butter over the top and side of your strudel sausage. If holes appear pastry a bit more pastry over the top using butter as your glue. 

Carefully transfer your strudel onto a greased baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes in a preheated oven (200 degrees C).  When it is ready the pastry will be golden brown.  Dust with icing sugar and serve with a flourish.