Apple Strudel... Fail

The cold autumn weather means one thing: apple season! Over the next two weeks, try finding an orchard and pick some apples. What can you do with the apples? Apple pie is only good once in a while. I'm not a huge apple pie fan, but I do like apples and desserts that contain apples in them.

Mom suggested we buy some filo pastry and try to make apple strudel. When I think of filo pastry, though, I think of baklava and spanakopita -- not apple strudel. I didn't know what to expect.

I peeled, removed the core, and sliced the sad-looking apples. Cinnamon, brown sugar, and melted butter was mixed with the sliced apples. I didn't measure anything. I just did it by eye and taste.

Mom layered the apples with a sheet of filo pastry, a few brushes of melted butter, and a sprinkling of cinnamon. She got impatient and began to use a few layers of filo pastry at a time.

The apple strudel was thrown in the oven and came out looking beautifully golden. We let the strudel rest for about twenty minutes before we dug in.

Square slices of the apple strudel were served with a side of vanilla ice cream or sweet whipped cream.

I felt the dessert lacking in a few ways. The main thing was that some of the filo layers were soft and not crisp. This was the result of being impatient with layering the filo pastry. You need to have a layer of butter between each layer of filo so that it crisps up. The other reason was that the filo pastry wasn’t very satisfying. Puff pastry would be a lot better! The apple filling also needed another dimension. Maybe using some lemon juice and freshly ground cinnamon and nutmeg would pick it up. If we do attempt to make apple strudel again, we definitely need to do things properly.

What are your favourite desserts containing apples?