A beautiful and simple pastry filled with jam, nuts, and coconut. Strudel is so easy to put together and the flavor combinations are endless. A handful of ingredients and 30 minutes is all you need. Cherry, almond, and coconut make a delicious sweet and tart strudel perfect for Christmas morning.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Prep Time 25 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Chill Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 55 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Pastry Dough
½Csalted butterroom temperature
4ozcream cheeseroom temperature
½tspkosher salt
1Call purpose flour
Filling
1Ccherry jam*
½Csweetened shredded coconut*
¼Ctoasted sliced almonds*
Topping
1egg
1tspwater
1Tbdemerara sugar**
Instructions
To make the dough
Place the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Mix on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix on low just until the dough starts to come together. Turn of the mixer. Pour the dough onto a work surface and bring it together into a disc-shape by hand.
Chill the dough for at least an hour before rolling it out. You can also make the dough up to 5 days in advance and leave in the fridge.
When you're ready to prepare your strudel, bring the dough out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature until it has softened slightly (usually about 30 minutes).
Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Keep the shape of dough somewhere between a rectangle and an oval. Really you just need one side about double the length of the other. The beauty of this strudel is that the rolling process doesn't have to be exact. Roll out until the dough reaches a thickness of about ⅛-inch.
To make strudel
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Once the dough is rolled out, remove the top layer of parchment paper. Pour the jam onto the dough and spread out evenly leaving a one-inch border around the edge. Next, add the coconut and then the nuts, spreading both evenly over the jam.
With the long side of the dough facing you, start rolling the dough away from you. After the first roll, tuck in the shorter ends to give a rectangle shape when you're finished rolling. Roll over length-wise one more time and trim off any excess so the seam is on the bottom of the strudel.
Trim the parchment paper down to remove some of the excess. Transfer the strudel on the remaining parchment paper to a baking sheet.
Beat 1 egg with 1 tsp of water. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg onto the top of the strudel and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
Bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. Let the strudel rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Notes
*The filling is completely up to you. The cherry and almond combination here is a new one for me, but I loved it so much I decided to post this recipe, but my mom's traditional recipe uses apricot jam, coconut and finely chopped pecans which is also delicious. The coconut is the consistent factor, but if you're not a fan of coconut feel free to omit it. Really any combination of jams and nuts that you like would be perfect for this strudel.**Demerara is a raw, larger grain sugar that is perfect for garnishing pastries. It adds a little sparkle and crunch to the top of the dough. If you can't find it in your local store, I've included a link to purchase it above.***This recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, etc to feed a crowd. Just wrap each dough serving individually in plastic wrap before chilling. You can bake two strudels on one baking sheet.