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.