Filo apple strudel

Filo apple strudel recipe. Discuss this article

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Serves 6

Ingredients
1 sheet of filo, 55 x 20cm
100g raisins
4 apples (preferably Braeburn or Cox)
Juice of 1 lemon
60g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
30g icing sugar
Whipped cream, to serve (optional)

Method
• For the filling, blanch the raisins in boiling water for two minutes, drain and refresh in cold water, then drain well.
• Peel, halve and core the apples, then cut each half into 2mm thick slices. Place in a bowl with the lemon juice, caster sugar, cinnamon and blanched raisins. Mix gently, cover with cling film and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lay the filo on a clean tea towel with one of the short edges facing you. Spread the filling evenly over the whole surface. Starting from the edge closest to you, and using the tea towel to help, roll the filo into a nice sausage-like shape, enclosing the filling and applying light pressure as you go along.
• Carefully lift the rolled apple strudel onto the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes until golden and crisp. Using a large palette knife, slide the warm strudel onto a wire rack. Dust the strudel liberally with icing sugar and place on a serving platter. At the table, use a very sharp serrated knife to cut it slightly on the bias into 2.5cm thick slices. Serve with whipped cream if you wish.

Tip from the top

‘I used to make this with classic strudel pastry – stretching it carefully to avoid tearing until it was so thin you could read a newspaper through it.’