Kastanienstrudel

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large clean cotton cloth or tablecloth for stretching
• •Rolling pin
• •Potato ricer or food mill
• •Pastry brush
• •Baking tray lined with parchment

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the strudel dough

   Mound the flour on a clean work surface and make a well in the center. Pour in the warm water, oil, vinegar, and salt. Work it together with your hands, pulling the flour in from the edges until a shaggy dough forms, then knead for a full ten minutes. This is not a gentle process. You're developing gluten, and the dough needs to be worked until it's completely smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky. Slap it against the counter a few times if it helps. When it's ready, it should feel like your earlobe: soft, pliable, with a slight spring.

   The vinegar isn't for flavor. It relaxes the gluten and makes the dough easier to stretch later without tearing. Don't skip it.
2. 2

   Rest the dough

   Brush the surface of the dough lightly with oil, place it on a plate, and cover it with a warm, inverted bowl. Let it rest for at least thirty minutes, and up to an hour is better. The gluten needs this time to relax completely. If you try to stretch it too soon, it will fight you, snapping back like a rubber band, and you'll tear it. Patience now saves frustration later.

3. 3

   Roast and peel the chestnuts

   While the dough rests, score each chestnut with a sharp knife, cutting a deep cross through the flat side of the shell. Spread them on a baking tray and roast at 200°C for twenty minutes. The shells will curl back at the cuts. Peel them while they're still hot, removing both the hard outer shell and the papery inner skin. This is the tedious part. The inner skin clings and you'll lose your temper at least once. Work in small batches, keeping the unpeeled ones warm in the oven, because cold chestnuts are nearly impossible to peel cleanly.

   If you can find good vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts, use them. Life is short and chestnut peeling is long. You'll need about 300g of peeled chestnuts, which is what 500g of fresh ones gives you after the shells and skins come off.
4. 4

   Make the chestnut filling

   Push the warm peeled chestnuts through a potato ricer or food mill into a large bowl. You want a fine, fluffy texture, not a paste. If you don't have a ricer, pulse them in a food processor until smooth, but take care not to overwork them or the filling turns gluey. Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and creamy, then beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Add the Vanillezucker, rum, and lemon zest. Fold in the chestnut puree and the cream until everything is combined. The filling should be thick and spreadable, the color of caramel, and it should smell like autumn distilled into a bowl.

5. 5

   Toast the breadcrumbs

   Melt the 40g of butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the breadcrumbs and stir constantly until they turn golden and fragrant, about three to four minutes. Watch them carefully. Breadcrumbs go from golden to burnt in seconds and burnt breadcrumbs will ruin the whole Strudel. Tip them onto a plate to cool. These toasted crumbs serve two purposes: they absorb moisture from the filling so the dough stays crisp, and they add a nutty, buttery crunch between the layers.

6. 6

   Stretch the dough

   Lay a clean cotton cloth (a tablecloth works well) over your largest table and dust it generously with flour. Place the rested dough in the center and roll it out with a rolling pin as far as it will go easily. Then put down the pin. From here, you use your hands. Slide them under the dough, palms down, backs of your hands supporting the weight, and gently pull outward from the center. Work your way around, stretching a little at a time. The dough should become thin enough that you can see the pattern of the cloth through it. A few small tears are fine. Don't panic over them. Trim off the thick edges with kitchen scissors.

   Remove your rings and watch before stretching. Jewelry catches on the dough and tears it. Gretel always said your hands should be bare and your confidence high.
7. 7

   Fill and roll the strudel

   Preheat your oven to 190°C. Brush the entire surface of the stretched dough with melted butter. Scatter the toasted breadcrumbs evenly over the bottom third of the dough, closest to you. Spoon the chestnut filling in a thick line along that same edge, leaving about five centimeters clear on each side. Use the cloth to lift the edge of the dough up and over the filling, then keep rolling, letting the cloth do the work. The dough wraps around the filling in thin, overlapping layers. Tuck the ends under to seal everything in. Gently transfer the strudel, seam side down, onto a parchment-lined baking tray. Curve it slightly if it's too long for the tray. Brush the top generously with the remaining melted butter.

8. 8

   Bake the strudel

   Bake at 190°C for thirty to thirty-five minutes. After twenty minutes, brush the top with butter again. The strudel is done when the pastry is deep golden brown all over and the layers look dry and flaky. You'll hear it crackle faintly when you lean close. Let it rest on the tray for ten minutes before slicing. The filling needs that time to set or it will ooze out when you cut.

9. 9

   Dust and serve

   Dust the strudel generously with powdered sugar. Cut thick slices on the diagonal with a serrated knife, letting each cut show the spiral of thin pastry wrapped around the dark chestnut filling. Serve warm with a generous spoonful of Schlagobers on the side. Not on top. On the side. The cream is a companion, not a blanket. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy your chestnuts from a source that sells them fresh in season, not the ones that have been sitting in a bin since last year. Fresh chestnuts are heavy for their size, glossy, and firm when you press them. If they rattle inside the shell, they've dried out and your filling will taste flat.
• •The rum in the filling is not decoration. It lifts the chestnuts out of stodginess and gives the whole thing a warm, rounded depth. Use a decent dark rum, not cooking rum. If you'd drink it, you can bake with it.
• •Strudel dough stretches best at room temperature in a warm kitchen. If your kitchen is cold, the dough stiffens and resists. Run the heating for an hour before you start, or let the dough rest in a slightly warm spot.
• •Kastanienstrudel is best eaten within a few hours of baking, when the pastry is still crisp. By the next day the filling softens the layers. It's still good reheated in a hot oven for ten minutes, but it won't be the same and I won't pretend otherwise.

Advance Preparation

• •The strudel dough can rest for up to two hours under its warm bowl. Longer than that and it dries out.
• •The chestnut filling can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature before filling the strudel, or it will be too stiff to spread without tearing the dough.
• •Chestnuts can be roasted and peeled the day before and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Warm them gently before ricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 210g)