Nutty Strudel with Italian Gelato

At least once a year, promise to yourself to make a humble strudel dough. This dough isn’t too tricky. The only thing you need is time and warmness. This nutty strudel comes from a very satisfying and easy combination, inspired by Jamie Oliver. This layer of the old-fashioned pastry dough, filled with lovely apples, pecans and cranberries, topped up by the master itself: Italian Gelato. Yes and yes!

Total Time: 2 hours + a few hours for the ice cream to chill

The Italian Gelato

In a medium metal bowl place all the 3 ingredients: cream, milk and vanilla. Whisk until it thickens, not entirely into firm peaks.

Mold it into the medium plastic box and freeze for a couple of hours. No mixing.
Before serving, let it chill for about 5 minutes in room temperature. Heavenly good.

The Strudel Dough

In a small bowl pour 50ml of lukewarm water, egg, lemon juice and olive oil. Stir.

In a wide mixing bowl place flour and salt. Mix.

Make a well in the middle and pour in the liquid. Start kneading dough from the outside into the inside with a spatula. Slowly incorporate all the flour. Knead with hands or mixer until you get a desirable texture, for about 5 minutes. The dough should be elastic and smooth.

Sprinkle with some more flour and cover it with a clean cloth. Let it rise in room temperature for at least 1 hour.

The Filling

In a large bowl put the apples. Cover them with ice cold water and lemon juice.

In a small bowl mix pecans, 50g of raw sugar, 25g of cranberries and all the spices: cinnamon, ginger and cloves.

Just before the dough is ready to work with, drain the apples with a clean cloth.

Heat up a medium frying pan on high heat and sprinkle with 50g of raw sugar. Apples in.

Stir in 25g of cranberries and mix until the apples caramelize and get softer. Take off the heat and set aside.

Presentation

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Decide whether you want to make 2 smaller strudels or one large. If you decide 2 smaller ones, divide the dough into 2 parts and follow the same procedure.

Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape with a roller, similarly as a pizza dough.

Next, gently transfer it onto the clean cloth and start stretching from the edges until you can see through it. A higher level is to throw the dough in the air and stretch with your hands and elbows. No biggy if it breaks, it will still be delicious. Challenge yourself and have fun with it.

Once you are ready, fill the dough generously in the ⅓ of the spaces. Layer with apples and cranberries, pecan mix.

At the end of the dough place a sheet of baking paper, so the strudel will end up on it. Move the cloth as you go and roll the strudel all the way up to baking paper. The closing is in the bottom. Gently close the sides underneath.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with the rest of the pecans and sugar on top. My advice is to skip the cranberries on the top. They are kind of hard to eat when baked.

Bake for about 40 minutes, depending on its size. In half of the time, take the strudel out and brush with melted butter.

When the strudel is golden and bake through, take it out and brush with melted butter.

Take out your lovely gelato and serve the strudel warm with a cup of coffee and dollop of ice cream.

For more combinations of a strudel click here.

Makes ½ kg of gelato and 1 large/2 medium strudels.