Cherry strudel is a traditional pastry from Austria and neighboring countries, made with a flaky pastry shell and filled with black or sweet cherries. The pastry is made with phyllo dough, and the filling is cooked in sugar and juice until syrupy. Home bakers can use prepackaged dough and filling to simplify the process. The finished pastry is often dusted with powdered sugar or served with cream.
Cherry strudel is a variant of a popular and traditional bakery product from Austria and neighboring countries. In general, strudel consists of a flaky pastry shell containing sweet or savory fillings. This particular type of strudel is filled with black cherries or cherries. Cooking traditional cherry strudel can be time-consuming, but the home cook can minimize the time and effort involved by taking a few shortcuts.
Strudel first became popular in the 1700s, during the reign of the Habsburg Monarchy in a region later known as Austria-Hungary. However, the layered phyllo pastry used for strudel arose from Moorish or Turkish influence on the region. Traditional strudel fillings include but are not limited to apples, plums, cottage cheese, sauerkraut, cabbage, walnuts, and cherry. Cherry strudel is traditionally called “Weichselstrudel”.
Phyllo dough, also called “filo” or “fillo”, is a thin, partially translucent sheet made of flour, water, eggs, and butter or oil. The baker combines these ingredients and rolls out the dough to the same approximate thickness as a piece of paper. Then cut the dough into individual sheets. For strudel and many other baked goods, the baker layers these sheets of dough on top of each other, spreading butter or oil between the sheets to create a flaky pastry with distinct layers.
Most cherry strudel is made with black cherries, but some bakers may prefer cherries or use them when black cherries are no longer in season. Tart cherries — also called sour cherries — are too acidic to eat raw but sweeten when cooked, especially when cooked in a sugary syrup. Sweet cherries are usually eaten fresh rather than baked, but some bakers may still prefer the added, natural sweetness of the cherry for baking. Regardless of type, the baker removes the pits and cooks the cherries in sugar and juice until a syrupy consistency forms. He or she places this filling in the center of the innermost layer of dough before wrapping all the sheets around the filling and sealing them together.
Home bakers can simplify this process by using prepackaged dough and filling. Many grocery stores and specialty food stores sell frozen phyllo dough wraps. Alternatively, some home bakers use frozen puff pastry, which creates a similar flaky pastry. Canned cherry pie filling, found in the baking aisle of a standard grocery store, works in place of homemade filling. Some brands of prepackaged cherry filling are sweeter than others, and the consumer should choose the brand that most appeals to his or her sense of taste.
After filling the pastry, the baker brushes the outside of the cherry strudel with egg or butter and bakes it in a preheated oven until the pastry is golden brown. Brushing the pastry with warm milk after it comes out of the oven softens the crust. The finished cherry strudel is often dusted with powdered sugar or served with cream.
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