Holy strudel! The moment I saw Heather Christo’s mouth-watering recipe for Apricot Strudel, I knew I had to make it as soon as possible. Apricots are in season now, and these sweet little gems are just flooding the farmers market. I hadn’t made a strudel in years (and never an apricot one!), and was looking forward to playing with some fillo dough. Heather’s strudel turned out a little prettier than mine (I credit her fillo dough handling abilities to the fact that she married a Greek), but wow, was it ever delicious! The apricots could have easily been mistaken for peaches in this flaky strudel, and it was the perfect summer dessert. But don’t believe me—try it yourself! I guarantee it will make an apricot fan out of you for life.

Here’s what you need! Actually, you need all this plus all-purpose flour. I realized I forgot the flour right after I uploaded this photo.

Simple ingredients, really. Just make sure you leave yourself enough time to defrost your fillo dough before starting! Fillo dough defrosts at room temperature in about two hours and trust me, you don’t want to attempt working with this stuff until it has defrosted—-these tissue paper-thin pastry sheets tear easily.

First, melt a stick of butter. You’ll need every bit of this stick for brushing on the fillo dough. This is what will make your strudel so perfectly crisp and golden. After your butter has melted, set it aside.

Slice your apricots and toss them into a bowl with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar.

Then add two tablespoons of flour and a pinch of cinnamon. It should look all delicious and juicy—just like a pie filling.

Now here is where things could get a little complicated … but not really. You’ll see! Open your box of defrosted fillo dough and place ONE super-thin sheet on a parchment paper (or Silpat-lined) baking sheet. Brush that sheet well with the melted butter.

A great tip here is to cover the fillo dough with a wet paper towel while you work. This will prevent it from drying out and cracking.

After you have brushed the butter on your sheet of fillo, carefully grab two more sheets from the package (remember to cover the remaining up with the wet paper towel!). Place these two sheets on top of the buttery sheet, the opposite way.

Proceed to drench in butter.

Repeat this process (laying one sheet down, brushing with butter, then topping with two sheets going the opposite way) until you have eight buttery fillo layers, or until you use up your box of fillo. I did the latter.

Pour the sugary apricots down the center of the fillo dough in as skinny of a line as you can make.

Then, fold the outer “wings” of dough in and start rolling up your strudel like you would roll up an egg roll. You want the ends of the strudel to be as tucked in as you can get so none of that beautiful apricot filling escapes. (See Heather’s blog post for photos of how she did hers!)

Brush your strudel with the remaining melted butter then stick her in a 400ºF oven for half an hour.

And there ya go! She’s a beauty all right, and you can’t even (really) tell that I tore some of the fillo dough accidently.

Serve this warm with powdered sugar dusted on top of with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Thank you, Heather, for this lovely recipe! It’s a keeper, for sure. Check out her blog, Heather Christo Cooks, for more of her great recipes. (You can find the strudel recipe below for printing, so you don’t splatter that melted butter on your laptop like I just did. Oops.)

Printable Recipe

Apricot Strudel

by Heather Christo on June 27, 2012 in Desserts, Fruit Desserts June 27, 2012 DessertsFruit Desserts

See post on Heather Christo’s site!

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Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 8

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Description

Tender, sweet and tart apricots wrapped in buttery, flaky filo dough make a fast and easy strudel!

Ingredients

• 1 stick Butter
• 8  Apricots, Sliced
• ¼ cups Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 pinch Cinnamon
• ½ packages (16 Oz. Size) Filo Dough

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Prepare a sheet pan with a Silpat or parchment paper.
2. In a small pan, melt the butter over low heat. Set aside.
3. Slice the apricots into thin wedges and set them in a bowl.
4. Sprinkle the apricots with sugar, flour and cinnamon. Gently toss everything to coat.
5. Lay a single sheet of filo down in the pan. Brush the sheet with butter.
6. Then lay 2 sheets of filo dough in the opposite direction, overlapping. Brush them with butter.
7. Continue this process of 1 sheet followed by 2 sheets until you have 8 layers of filo dough.
8. Spread the apricots out on the filo dough in a line.
9. Pull the filo dough up and over the apricots and then roll it like a spring roll until the edge of the filo dough is tucked under the strudel.
10. Tuck the ends under. Brush the whole outside of the streudel generously with the rest of the melted butter.
11. Bake the strudel at 400ºF for 30 minutes or until the fruit is soft and the pastry is golden brown.

 
 
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Jenna is a food writer who has worked as a pastry chef and bread baker. Her blog Eat, Live, Run has great recipes, travel stories, and the perfect slogan: “Celebrating life, one crumb at a time.”