Recipes from our Department

Recipe #1: Apfelstrudel

This recipe was contributed by a member of the German Department.

Recipe adapted from Albert Kofranek, Das neue Donauland Kochbuch (1975).

Photos by Lydia Drabkin-Reiter.

 

Ingredients

Pastry: 300g fine white flour, ca. 150ml warm water, 1tbs light vegetable oil, pinch of salt. Filling: 1kg apples, 100g sugar, 100g coarsely ground nuts, 150g melted butter, ground cinnamon.

You will need a large baking tray.

Preheat the oven to 200°C

The secret to making Apfelstrudel, which during my childhood was often served as a main meal preceded by soup, is to stretch the pastry thinly enough to read a newspaper if placed underneath. In order to achieve this you need to get the flour-water proportions right and you have to knead the dough until it has a silky texture.

If you normally bake with wholemeal flour or white spelt, don’t try to use them for this recipe: your dough won’t stretch. Put the flour, salt and oil into a bowl and add most of the water. When I was first taught to make – I was told to mix the ingredients on the work surface as the photos demonstrate. However, this makes the job quite a bit messier and I suggest you stick to the method with the bowl.

It depends on the flour and on the ‘atmosphere’, my mother used to say, whether you need a little more or a little less water than specified. When you mix the ingredients together with a spoon you should aim for a consistency that is just damp enough to allow the dough to come together. When you have achieved this you place the dough onto your work surface and start kneading it.

When it is ready (after about 5 minutes) it should not be sticking to the surface or your fingers and it should have a silky appearance. Then put the dough into a bowl coated with some oil, cover it with Clingfilm and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime core and cut the apples into small bits. You can peel them, too, if you want, but I don’t as I prefer the earthier taste. You also need to grind the nuts. Walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds, are all suitable. They should be ground finely enough to soak up the juices from the baking apples but course enough to add texture to the filling. Just before you start stretching the dough you should also melt the butter.

When you are ready to make the strudel, first cover your dining table with a cotton cloth. Don’t use your best tablecloth as it might get stained. There is a good reason for every cake baker in Austria to own a dedicated ‘Strudeltuch’. Dust the cloth and a rolling pin with flour and then roll out the dough to about 1 cm thickness.

Now the fun starts! You lift up the dough and drape it over one of your hands, put the other one underneath as well and gently move your hands apart and at the same time rotate the dough that is hanging over your hands.

It is quite an experience to see, and feel, the dough immediately begin to stretch. When the dough threatens to reach your elbows (which will take less than a minute) it is time to spread it on the cloth and gently start pulling and stretching the thicker bits at the edges. The objective is to avoid creating holes while pulling and stretching but don’t worry if the dough tears a little bit.

When the dough is evenly thin (a good test is if you can see the pattern of the tablecloth through it!) you proceed to the filling. It’s impossible to get the edges of the dough as thin as the middle and some bakers cut them off before filling the strudel. I like the thicker bits of dough, so I don’t do this. Spread the apples over the dough followed by the sugar, nuts, cinnamon and about 2/3 of the melted butter. If your dough did tear, avoid the holes when spreading the filling; but this is common sense!

The next step will make it clear why you need the cloth: lifting the cloth, you roll up the dough once each from left and right on the shorter sides (to keep the filling from escaping).

Then lift the cloth to roll from front to back along one of the longer sides, until the strudel looks like a big sausage.

Still using the cloth, roll the sausage onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking parchment.

This is a slightly tricky bit and you may find it easier to roll the strudel onto the parchment first and then slide the latter with the strudel onto the baking tray. If your strudel is too long you may have to turn it into a U-shape on the tray. Pour the remaining melted butter over the strudel and bake for about one hour.

It’s delicious straight from the oven, but you can also serve it cold, with a dusting of icing sugar.

 

Recipe #2: Linzer Torte

This recipe was contributed by a member of the German Department.

Recipe adapted from Albert Kofranek, Das neue Donauland Kochbuch (1975).

Photos by Lydia Drabkin-Reiter.

 Ingredients:

300g flour, 300g ground hazelnuts, 300g soft butter, 220g sugar, 1 whole egg and one additional yolk, 1/2tsp ground cinnamon, juice and peel of 1 and 1/2 lemons; red currant jam and flaked almonds.

26-28cm loose bottomed cake tin lined with baking parchment.

Preheat oven to 180°C

I grew up in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria, but I don’t remember eating Linzer Torte while I was still at home nor did my mother ever make it. It was a cake tourists would buy as a souvenir in one of the expensive Konditoreien. However, since leaving Austria I have made it occasionally, not only because of its association with my hometown but because it is a delicious cake. There are two different versions of Linzer Torte. There is a sponge version, however this requires piping the lattice onto the base, which is too messy for my taste and also inevitably wastes some of the cake mixture, which remains in the piping bag.

Combine the flour and butter to a consistency resembling breadcrumbs; then add all the other ingredients except for the jam and the flaked almonds. Don’t over-mix; only enough for the dough to just come together. Spread 2/3 of the mixture evenly on the bottom of the cake tin and carefully put a layer of jam on top.

Soft jam works best because you avoid inadvertently stirring it into the cake mixture below. Red currant jam is traditional, but if you can’t find any you can substitute other flavours.

 From the remaining dough you form finger-thin sausages, which are arranged in a lattice shape on top of the jam.

 If you can, divide the dough such that you finish with enough for one ‘sausage’ of dough running around the edge of the cake. As the pictures demonstrate I made the mistake of starting with the edge. Sprinkle the top of the cake with flaked almonds.

Then bake for 45 minutes to one hour until slightly browned. Leave to cool in the tin. Before serving, cut out a paper circle slightly smaller than the cake, place on top of the cake and dust with icing sugar. This will give you the nice effect shown in the photograph.

 

 

Recipe #3: Marmorkuchen-Marble Cake

 

This recipe was contributed by a member of the German Department.

Recipe adapted from Albert Kofranek, Das neue Donauland Kochbuch (1975). 

Photos by Melis Yerek/ Gülderen Zincirkiran.

Ingredients

1 cup butter , 
1 1/2 cups white sugar, 4 eggs, 1 cup milk, 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 10 inch tube pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar. Beat in the eggs, then the milk.
 

 

3.Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Turn half of the batter into another bowl and stir in the cocoa.

       

 

4. Layer the light and dark batters by large spoonfuls and then swirl slightly with a knife.

 

5. Bake the cake in at 350 degree F (175 degree C) for about 70 minutes, or until it tests done with a toothpick. Transfer to a rack to cool. Makes about 14 to 16 servings.

 

 

Recipe #4: Apricot Cake Roll

Ingredients

6 eggs (separated), 180 g icing sugar, 120 g flour, 1 small packet vanilla sugar/1 tsp vanilla essence

For the filling

200g apricot jam, 1 tbsp rum

Extra icing sugar

Baking parchment

Directions

1.   Mix egg yolk, icing sugar and vanilla essence (the mixture should be quite light in colour)

2.   Beat egg whites stiff (until the mixture forms little peaks)

3.   Fold the egg whites and flour into the egg yolk mixture

4.   Cover the baking tray with baking parchment and spread the sponge mixture onto it (about 1cm thickness)*

5.   Bake at high heat (200-220 degrees) for 10-12 minutes

6.   Turn the baked sponge onto a damp dishtowel (or one that has been covered with sugar)

7.   Spray or dab the baking parchment with water and pull it off

8.   Mix jam with the rum, cover the sponge cake with it and roll it tightly

9.   Place onto a board covered with icing sugar, cover with icing sugar and cut into 2cm thick slices once cooled

*Not thicker! Otherwise you end up – like me – with a sponge cake that is hard to roll and breaks. So borrow a larger baking tray from a friend if yours is too small…

Guten Appetit!