Has anyone else been affected by the Blackberry outage over the last day? I have had my Blackberry for about a year and a half...and I hate it! I always seem to have problems with it. It freezes (sometimes even mid-ring so I can't answer the phone!), the Internet access is horrible, emails and texts are delayed, my media card broke, my Twitter connection is horrible (which is why I hardly ever Tweet)...the list can go on and on. When my phone stopped receiving emails yesteray morning, it was the last straw. I threw it into the Hudson freaked out and decided that I need a new phone (of course, this was before I realized it as a worldwide outage, but still). Argh! iPhone here I come!
Good thing there are yummy treats to keep me occupied. And make me happy. You know what else makes me happy? When it's one of the easiest treats ever, but only seems like you slaved over it for hours.
This past weekend, Shaun and I drove out to a local farm to pick up some fall goodies. I had been jonesing for a bit of apple cider, fresh doughnuts, many apple varieties and some crisp fall air. I got what I went for!
When we decided to make our Oktoberfest dinner, I knew that some kind of apple strudel would be the perfect finale, especially a homemade one containing freshly picked apples!
This is definitely not a traditional strudel. But it's so easy and so delicious that I'm not sure why anyone would ever not make this version. I'm fairly certain that it took all of 5 minutes to come together before leaving it in the oven to bake. In addition to crisp, sweet apples, I also added some dried cranberries for a bit of tartness and texture. I think the strudel would be great without them though too! I could also see brown sugar, pecans, or any other baking fruit as a substitute. I topped the strudels with a bit of light and fluffy vanilla ice cream.
If that's not the perfect dessert, I don't know what is.
Apple & Cranberry Strudel
*Adapted from Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling out dough)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large baking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp dried cranberries (or craisins)
1 sheet of puff pastry (1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package), thawed
Confectioners' sugar (for dusting)
vanilla ice cream (for topping)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon together. In a mixing bowl, toss sugar mixture with the apples (I used one Macintosh apple and 1 Gala apple) and cranberries; set aside.
Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry with a rolling pin, with the short side facing you. The pastry should be rolled out to about 16x12 inches. Spread the apple mixture on the bottom half of the pastry only, leaving a small border around the edges.
Starting with the side facing you, roll up the pastry very carefully so as to gather the apple mixture inside of it but without ripping the dough. Once rolled up, tuck in the ends and place on a greased baking sheet. In a small bowl, beat the egg and water together. Cut small slits across the top of the pastry and brush top with egg mixture.
Bake for 35 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes and sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Serve warm with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream! Is your mouth watering yet?
Mine is!
Questions of the Day:
Have you had cell phone issues in the past? Or affected by Blackberry right now?
Are you a fan of apples around this time of year? What's your favorite kind? I love honeycrisp, macintosh, galas, and fujis!
psst...It's Handpicked Peaches day over on The Peach & The Pit! We rounded up some awesome links from around the web for ya!