This recipe serves four.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups apples, golden delicious, braeburn, empire: peeled, cored and diced half-inch
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- ½ Tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/8 Tsp. ground nutmeg
- ½ Tsp. pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ¾ cup diced, steamed butternut squash cubes, half-inch pieces
- 4 each Phyllo dough sheets, available in the freezer section of market
- ½ Cup melted butter
- 1 Tbsp. sugar in the raw
Instructions:
To prepare filling, heat a saute pan on medium-high heat. Add apples, sugar and butter. Cook, stirring until apples become tender and the sugar has become medium golden in color. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, dried cranberries and butternut squash. Lay the filling out on a baking sheet in a thin layer to cool. Reserve to fill strudels.
Lay one sheet of thawed phyllo dough onto work surface with the 16-inch side closest to you and the 12-inch side away from you. Keep the other sheets of dough covered with a double thick sheet of plastic wrap to prevent from drying out. Brush a thin coating of melted butter over the left half of the dough. Fold the unbuttered half over onto the buttered half to make an 8-inch-wide by 12-inch-deep strip. Turn this rectangle 90 degrees to have a 12-inch-wide by 8-inch-deep piece. Butter the left half of the surface again, and fold the unbuttered half over onto the buttered half to make a 6-inch-wide by 8-inch-deep piece of dough. Lightly brush melted butter onto this sheet.
Spoon one quarter of the filling onto the first quarter of the dough, shaping into a cylinder onto the dough. Leave a 1-inch border on each end with no filling to roll the sides in. Gently roll up dough around filling, tucking sides in, and roll into a moderately tight cylinder. Place seam side down onto cookie sheet, brush top lightly with more melted butter, gently score the strudel through the first layer or two of dough with a serrated knife to make slicing at presentation easier.
Sprinkle the top of the strudel with the sugar in the raw. Repeat with three other sheets of dough. Place on a baking sheet with a rack. Bake in a preheated 400-degree Fahrenheit oven for about 15 minutes or until strudel is evenly golden brown and crisp. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream. Enjoy!
