Chef Joey's Vegan Apple Strudel

Submitted by Chef Joey Z.

"Our neighbor, Jorge gave us cart blanch with his apple tree and this morning Stu picked me a dozen beautiful red organic apples. I didn't have any phyllo pastry so decided to use puff pastry. I wanted to add some dried fruit so am using dried blueberries. This makes two strudels. I didn't include the thawing time for the strudel in this recipe."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 10mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 (17 1/3 ounce) package puff pastry (thawed-contains two sheets)
• 12 medium apples (peeled, cored, thin sliced)
• 1⁄4 cup coconut rum (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup dried blueberries (or other dried berries)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 3⁄4 cup raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 1⁄2 cup vegan margarine (Earth Balance-melted)
• 2 tablespoons cold vegan margarine (cut into small pieces)

directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375'F and put your oven rack in the middle position.
2. In a medium bowl combine the rum, lemon extract, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Mix together and set aside.
3. Prepare your apples. I washed them, then used my food processor to slice them. I didn't peel my apples but did core them.
4. I then put the apples into a large bowl and added the rum mixture and mixed well. Let this sit for a few minutes.
5. You should see some moisture come out of the fruit. Save this and make a sauce out if it if you wish. I'm going to add a little arrowroot to it and heat it up and pour over the strudel when I serve it.
6. Roll out your thawed puff pastry sheet to a 15x12 inch rectangle.
7. Using a slotted spoon, place 1/2 the apple mixture onto the pastry leaving about 2" along the edges bare.
8. Place 1 tablespoon of the cold vegan margarine cut into small pieces evenly on the top of the apple mixture and roll it up. Fold the edges at each end.
9. Brush the whole strudel with the melted vegan margarine. Using a pair of scissors cut 3 slits evenly in the top and sprinkle with a little more cinnamon and sugar if you wish. I keep a mixture of this on hand for these types of recipes.
10. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 40 minutes, rotating the pan 1/2 way through the baking process until the pastry is puffed and brown.
11. I had 1/2 cup of the rum mixture left. I mixed 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder into the rum and gently hearted it until it boiled for a few minutes until thickened.
12. I put this over the strudel and wow, was that delicious.
13. Bon Appetit!