Apricot Strudel: Daring Bakers May 2009

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

As you can see, I didn’t make an apple strudel. I had a bunch of apricots, so I used them. They needed more sugar.

Part of the challenge was rolling out the dough so thin you could read through it.

I sprinkled roughly chopped pistachios on a piece of the dough and arranged the apricots on top, then sprinkled it with a teeensy bit of rosewater.

I didn’t have to form a horseshoe shape to fit the strudel on the pan, so…I didn’t.

I don’t think it would have bent easily anyway.

I had (for once!) extra egg whites, so I made some almond meringues to go along with the strudel. I don’t know why. But I like meringues!

Unfortunately, it was hot this past weekend and the meringues were super-sticky, but with some really awesome vanilla sugar whipped cream and the tart apricots, it sort of all comes together. I think I’m going to try making some kind of brown sugar syrup to drizzle the leftovers with or something, since more sugar is really all it needs.

I did really like the cardamom with the apricots, though. They really brought out a fruitiness in the cardamom that I hadn’t really noticed before.

I did have a lot of fun making and stretching the dough, and will absolutely do this again when I have another large amount of fruit.

Or maybe I’ll make a savory one for dinner this week…hmm, I was contemplating pot pie, but strudel sounds better!

Thanks to Linda and Courtney for a challenge that was lots of fun, and, while I didn’t get perfect results the first time, it’s a recipe I know I’ll use again, sooo…double thanks for that! You can check out their blogs for the original recipe.