“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Who hasn’t heard of that saying? I’m sure most parents and grandparents used this proverb to make their childrenor granchildren eat fruits. Apples are one of my favourite ingredients when baking. I find them very versatile and easy to manipulate. You can make simple desserts with it like oven baked apples with brown sugar and cinnamon and plus, it is also healthy.

So today, I will be taking you to one of the northern region of Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige. It is confined with Austria in the North and with Switzerland in the Northwest. This explains why their culture is embedded with these two foreign countries.

Apples grows well in this region thanks to the Alps, that protects it from the cold and wind coming from the North, and to its geoghraphical position, that exposes it to the sun all year round. It is why Trentino-Alto Adige is full of small to medium family-owned apple ranches which makes it one of the region’s maggior assets.

This wonderful region has many different varieties of apples, you have:

• Golden Delicious
• Red delicious
• Renetta
• Fuji

Now I will share with you the most iconic dessert of this region (and I would also consider it one of my favourites): the Strudel (Apfelstrudel).

Did you know that this dessert doesn’t actually have Germanic origin, but Mesopotamian? I too , was surprised when I read it. Discoveries showed that the Assyrian Empire used to prepare thin layers of pastry dough filled with nuts and honey. This practice expanded all over Turkey, to Greece and finally in the Mediterranean area.

Basically this dessert is made filling puff pastry dough with apples, raisins, pine nuts and cinnamon. I think that this is excellent during the winter season. I love the smell of cinnamon and apples during the cold months. It reminds me of Christmas. Anyways, without further ado, this is the recipe:

Ingredients for the dough:

• 130 g (4.5 oz) white flour
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) water
• 9 g (1 tbsp) seed oil
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch of salt

Ingredients for the filling:

• 750 g (26.5 oz) apples (the original recipe use the renetta variety, but any apple is fine)
• 60 g (4 tbsps) sugar
• 60 g (4 tbsps) breadcrumbs
• 50 g (3 tbsps) butter
• 50 g (3 tbsps) raisins
• 25g (6 tsps) toasted pine nuts
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 2 tsp rum
• 1 lemon zest

To finish:

• icing sugar and/or cinnamon powder

Directions:

1. Firstly, prepare the dough by mixing sifted flour and salt in a bowl. Then, add the egg and water and start kneading. When the ingredients are nicely mixed, add the oil and knead until you obtain a smooth and elastic dough. If the dough is too sticky, add little flour. Transfer the dough in a bowl greased with a bit of oil and cover it with a cling wrap. Let it rest for an hour in a cool area.
2. Secondly, prepare the filling. Soak the raisins in rum or if you prefer in warm water. While waiting for the raisins, in a saucepan, melt 30 g (2 tsp) of butter, then add the breadcrumbs and mix until nicely brown. Close the heat and start preparing the apples.
3. Start peeling the apples and removing the core. Cut the apples in four sections and slice each sections into thin cuts. Place the sliced apples in a bowl, add the sugar, the pine nuts, the grated lemon zest and the nicely drained and squeezed raisins. Mix these well.
4. Melt the remaining butter. In your working station, place a clean cloth and sprinkle it with little flour. Place the dough on the cloth and start spreading it out with a rolling pin, forming a rectangle (at least 1\4 cm or inch thick). Grease it with the melted butter, except the borders, and spread the toasted breadcrumbs on that area. Put the apple filling and start rolling the dough. TIP: I prefer placing the filling mostly in the middle area then I fold the dough like this, the right part folds over the center and the left part overlaps it.
5. Close the dough well so that the filling won’t come out and with the help of the cloth, transfer it on your oven tray. Grease the top area with melted butter and bake it in a static oven at 200 degrees C (392 F) for about 40 minutes, or if you have a ventilated oven, cook at 180 degrees C (356 F) for about 30 minutes.
6. When it’s cooked, let it cool half an hour then sprinkle some icing sugar on top. You can also add cinnamon powder too, or even some whipped cream if you want.

There you have it, a yummy, northern Italian dessert! Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you try it. Leave me a message in the comment box and let me know how yours came out.