Between the river strudel recipe:
1. LAYER – 200 g fresh ground walnuts + 6 tablespoons sugar + 2 dcl fresh milk
2. LAYER – 200 g ground poppy seeds + 6 tablespoons sugar + 2 dcl fresh milk
3. LAYER – 500 g fresh cottage cheese + 1 large free range egg + 6 tablespoons sugar
4. LAYER – 1 kg fresh apples + 6 tablespoons sugar + 2 teaspoons cinnamon
150 g butter
300 g puff pastry dough
200 g strudel dough
6 tablespoons sour cream (with 2 teaspoons sugar)
PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
BAKING TIME: 1 hour 10 minutes
Between the river strudel recipe:
1. LAYER – 7 oz fresh ground walnuts + 6 tablespoons sugar + 6.5 oz dcl fresh milk
2. LAYER – 7 oz ground poppy seeds + 6 tablespoons sugar + 6.5 oz dcl fresh milk
3. LAYER – 17.5 oz fresh cottage cheese + 1 large free range egg + 6 tablespoons sugar
4. LAYER – 35 oz fresh apples + 6 tablespoons sugar + 2 teaspoons cinnamon
5 oz butter
10.5 oz puff pastry dough
7 oz strudel dough
6 tablespoons sour cream (with 2 teaspoons sugar)
PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
BAKING TIME: 1 hour 10 minutes
Hello my buttercups! Today it’s all about experiencing the unknown recipes in remote places of the world! Today we are in Croatia, northern Croatia precisely, and we are making the indigenous “between the river” strudel. Cool name, right? It is the best strudel recipe in the world! It’s about layers, tradition and only the finest ingredients, resembling the place where it came from. If you give it a try, I’ll guarantee it will be the best dessert you made this year, and it definitely won’t be your last! Let’s roll up our sleeves then!
The traditional name of this strudel is “Međimurska gibanica” (the name of the region is roughly translated like “between the river”, so let’s call it “between the river strudel”). It is made from 4 layers where every layer is separated by basic strudel dough . The layers are made of walnuts, poppy seeds, fresh cottage cheese and cinnamon apples. It is really a prominent region dessert, but only a handful of people in the world know about it, yet even tasted it (so you are one lucky buttercup). The ingredients are widely available by locals, and they are very commonly used in a lot of desserts in the region. The top and bottom layer of the “between the river strudel” is made from basic puff pastry dough. You can also buy all of it in the store, but my buttercup, you know me, we cook everything at home, because we can (and we’re gorgeous, of course)!
For the recipe it’s important to know your baking tray (I mean the dimensions of it, you don’t have to know it by name, but if you have a name for it, that’s totally ok, I guess). My baking tray is 25 x 40 x 8 cm (10 x 16 x 3 inches), just to know for the amount of ingredients used. Also, on the begging we start with cutting out baking paper for the bottom of the strudel, so it really won’t stick. Now that we have everything ready, we’ll go through the steps. In the steps it always goes layer on layer, it’s not really difficult, but making it first time, maybe it will take you a few minutes.
On your prepared baking tray (you have baking paper cut out on the bottom), we place the puff pastry dough, you can roll it out or manually place it on the bottom. If it doesn’t fit perfect, no worry, just seal all the borders and that’s it. Every bottom dough (either puff or strudel) is always coated with some melted butter! Just melt it in a small pan and add it on the layer with a brush. That’s the base for every layer in the “between the river” strudel.
Here’s the basic layout of the between the river strudel: base – puff pastry dough (coated with butter) + walnuts (FIRST LAYER), strudel dough (coated with butter) + ground poppy seeds (SECOND LAYER), strudel dough (coated with butter) + fresh cottage cheese (THIRD LAYER), strudel dough (coated with butter) + cinnamon apples (FOURTH LAYER), cover – puff pastry dough (coated with butter) + SOUR CREAM. And yes, we’re not building a skyscraper here.
1. We’re ready now for the first layer. The walnuts for the layer need to be ground walnuts, and they need to be of high quality. High quality walnuts have always a fresh smell, and never ever smell of old oxidated oil or fat. Heat up the milk and sugar in a pan. Add them to the ground walnuts and mix them altogether. Spread it evenly on the puff pastry dough and cover it with the strudel dough. The strudel dough needs to be nicely thin and evenly cover the first layer.
2. Perfect! Now we are ready for the second layer. First coat the strudel dough with the melted butter. In the meantime, warm up the milk together with sugar and add it to the ground poppy seeds. Mix it together and add the poppy seeds on the strudel dough. Spread it evenly and cover the whole dough nicely. Then again cover the second layer with some strudel dough, and you’re ready for the next step my darling.
3. As before, butter is king, that’s why we’ll butter the dough again. Now mix one egg with the sugar and add it to the cottage cheese. Stir well and spread evenly on the strudel dough. Cover the third layer with another strudel dough, and you’re ready for the next step.
4. For the next step peel the apples and grate them. Heat up your pan, hit it with a little butter, add the apples, sugar, and cinnamon. Let it simmer for a few minutes. The idea is to concentrate the apples and remove a little bit of the water. The best apples for baking always have a little bit higher acidity. That’s because, after baking, they still need to have a fruit kick in them. If you like the taste (and have no children near, well, I won’t judge) you can also add a little rum, it gives it a little kick. After a few minutes remove the apples from the heat and evenly place them on the dough. As always, the strudel dough needs to be covered first with, the one and only king of the kitchen, butter.
5. Now you are almost done with the layers. We only need to cover everything with the puff pastry dough. In the end we mix some sugar and sour cream and evenly cover the top of the puff pastry dough. A good advice is to cut out the strudel before baking it, afterwards you just pull out the pieces. Serving made easy.
At last, heat up your oven to 180 °C (350° Fahrenheit), and push the beauty of strudel in. Bake it for 1 h: 10 min, take it out and enjoy. You can cut the pieces out easily, serve it still warm, but for me, the best taste of the strudel is the next day. If it lasts till tomorrow, of course.
As always sharing is caring, get the word out to your friends and family, or don’t give a d*#n, have it for yourself, whatever you like! You’re the boss!
