Strudel . . . Ahhh...

Pin It

Strudel . . . strudel is amazing. Light, buttery, flaky . . . mmmmm... However, I rarely make a whole batch of strudel. I mostly just use the ends of the long, tubelike roll to make 4 strudels when I make a big batch of cinnamon rolls. For strudel, I allow for a longer rising time, then roll out, and fold, roll out and fold - incorporating plenty of softened butter into the dough. It makes for a very delicate pastry.

After getting just the right amount of butter folded in, the dough is rolled out into a long rectangle and spread with filling down the middle. Then the sides are folded over brochure style and slits cut in the top.

Once baked, a glaze or icing can be spread or drizzled over the top, and nuts if desired. Yum!

Underneath It All

Pin It

I'm always showing my rolls from the top with all the gooey goodness, but just so ya know, they look pretty tasty from bottom view as well!






Pictured on top are caramel apple rolls and on the bottom are chocolate chip Nutella rolls.both were a big hit!

These would also be very tasty with a powdered sugar icing or glaze.

Yummy Homemade Cinna-Buns

Pin It

Made these cinnamon rolls this morning. Actually, they are more like cinnamon biscuits, as they are made with baking powder. I still like yeast rolls better, but these made for a quick and yummy breakfast, especially good right out of the oven.

Italian Buttercream Frosting

Pin It

Yummy, yum, yum!!!  Have you ever made authentic Italian buttercream frosting? Once you have it, you will never want that premade canned stuff again.

 

Now, it's not as easy as a plain old buttercream frosting made by beating butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla together. It requires cooking a sugar syrup and then slowly adding it to beaten egg whites, making a lovely meringue, and then adding softened butter. 

 

You start by separating 5 eggs - you will be using only the whites, which you should place in a large bowl. Now, taking 1 1/4 cup extra fine sugar ( you can just run regular sugar through the coffee grinder for a few seconds ) and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan, cook these together until the syrup reaches a temperature of 238* on a candy thermometer or the soft-ball stage when a tiny bit is dropped into a glass of cool water. Remove from heat. 

 

While the sugar syrup is slowly cooking, beat the 5 egg whites until stiff. Once the egg whites are stiff and the sugar syrup is at the soft-ball stage, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites, beating all the while, until you have a nice meringue. Now, gently beat in 3/4 cup of softened butter. NOT TOO SOFT or your frosting will be wimpy. NOT TOO COLD or your frosting will be lumpy. Soft enough that you can begin to squish the butter with your fingers.

 

You can now place your buttercream in the fridge for a while, if you like. I think this makes it a bit easier to pipe.

 

The icing I have pictured here was a little too soft, but still tasted wonderful. Don't worry if you don't get it right the first time. It takes a bit of practice, but it's well worth the effort. I finally had to quit practicing, though, 'cause it was really ruining my diet!

Italian Buttercream Icing

5 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla (optional)