BEER STRUDEL

I do not drink beer and the only time when I use it is while washing my hair. It is a great treatment because hair are thicker and shinier. I have always made an apple strudel when I had a lot apples at home and this was the easiest to do. However, sometimes it is useful to refresh my baking skills and so I decided to make apple strudel with beer.

The recipe comes from a cookbook Sweet bars (in Czech Sladké bary), which is a masterpiece of lovely Stáňa Mutlová. And as she states in the cookbook, apples belong on the Christmas table for many man years.

Ingredients for 4 strudels:

500 g plain flour

250 g of lard

150-200 ml beer

For the filling:

100 g chopped almonds

1200 g cleaned and shredded apples

1 lemon

100 g breadcrumbs

50-100 g caster sugar (the amount depends on your taste)

4 packs of vanilla sugar

4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

On the top:

70 g melted butter

30 g rum

For garnish:

powdered sugar

Preparation:

Start by preheating the oven to 180 degrees. Prepare a large all-metal pot that will fit into the baking sheet. Then put both into the bottom of the oven and allow it to warm up.

On a wooden beam, sprinkle the flour and make a bigger hole. Spread around the lard which is coarsely grated or if it is softer, divided by fingers into smaller pieces. Pour two thirds of beer into the hole and knead the dough. Then add gradually the remaining one third of the beer, and mix until you have a beautifully smooth dough.

Divide the dough into four parts. If you do not consume it immediately, you can wrap it into food foil and store in the fridge. It lasts a maximum of five days.

Now, take the hot pot. Grab it using your gloves and take it out of the oven. Turn the pot upside down, cover the dough and let it rest. The heat will result in smooth dough. Let it rest for half an hour and then it will be ready for the next step.

In the meantime, roast the almonds. Heat a small pot, put there the chopped almonds and fry it until it becomes pinkish and you can smell it. Then move them on the cold plate.

Now, peel the apples. They must be cored and grated. Eventually, chop them into small pieces. Drizzle them with lemon so that they are not brown. Mix with roasted almonds. In another bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon.

In a small saucepan or microwave, heat the butter and mix it with rum.

After half an hour, remove the hot pot and put the dough to the side. Take one piece of dough and roll it into one rectangle. The thinner, the better. Sprinkle it with breadcrumbs, so that on both ends 4-5 cm remain without filling. Spread the apples on the breadcrumbs with chopped almonds, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (one quarter) and one pack of vanilla sugar. Finally, sprinkle it with rum butter. Just slightly, it cannot be too wet. Then take into your hand both ends and lightly press them. Strudel is almost done!

Finally, spread the rum butter on the strudel and let it bake in the oven. Reduce heat to 180 degrees and bake until it is golden brown color. According to the thickness of a strudel, it takes 20-30 minutes.

Let it to cool down, sprinkle with powdered sugar and you are finished.