Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Linda and Courtney will have the recipe posted - and you should know that with as much as my kids love apples and raisins, I followed the recipe almost exactly.  I used dark raisins (I just got 5lb of organic raisins from the co-op I'm in, I wasn't about to buy more) and I soaked them in bourbon (have it in the cabinet for when I make Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce - which pretty much rocks my world, by the way).  Other than that - I followed the recipe exactly.

Oh. My. Gracious. Ho.Ly. Moly. I was so excited about the challenge this month - even though I'm late posting (sorry!!!).  I've wanted to try strudel.  I mean, I am married to a guy of German descent, afterall.  I need something "German" in my repertoire, right? Ummm, this ain't it.  ;)   

Actually it wasn't that bad - until I went to the final stretching of the dough.  I'd gotten it almost paper thin with the rolling pin - yay.  Perhaps that was my problem.  Perhaps I should've stopped with the rolling pin sooner.  I had floured the heck out of my flour-sack towel - but there was one spot that I must have missed.  A spot about the size of a small cookie - HUGE hole in the middle of my dough.  Huge.  {mutter and try really hard to not cuss, but I wanted to}

Roll out another batch of dough and it won't get as thin as the other did.  I think I was scared.  And as a result, I overfilled the dough.  Brad started snacking before it was cooled and said it tasted good.  I said, "Well, it's so bloomin' ugly, it should taste good!" 

I'll definitely try again!  I enjoyed working with the dough even with the issues.