The Best Pumpkin Strudel (village of Trud)

THE BEST PUMPKIN STRUDEL has a special technology for rolling the sheets and arranging the filling - an extremely simple technique, but the result is perfect every time. Of course, it is easy to conclude that I am biased, and that is so - for me this recipe is one of the pearls in my grandmother's culinary crown, but however immodest it may sound, everyone who has made pumpkin strudel by this recipe falls in love with the dessert and passes it on. The pumpkin is grated, but not too finely. Salt the grated pumpkin, stir and leave for 10 minutes to release some of its water. Then carefully squeeze it by hand, to free it of the excess water and to have a crispy, not soggy pumpkin strudel. To the squeezed pumpkin add sugar to taste (I put 5-7 tablespoons), one sachet of cinnamon and mix well. This is the filling for the strudel. Melt the butter. Crush the walnuts, but not too finely, so that pieces can be felt. Take one sheet of the fine filo pastry and grease its entire surface. Place a second sheet on top of it. We always use two sheets to roll one strudel coil. And now comes the big secret, which is extremely simple and therefore genius. Along the entire length of the SHORT side of the sheet, place the filling. Only there!!! Then put a little honey (1 tablespoon) over the pumpkin filling. Then roll the sheets into a coil, but only 2-3 turns forward (see the diagram in the photos). The aim is to wrap the wet filling in pastry, to insulate it from the walnuts we are about to add. This way they will not get wet and therefore will not boil, but will bake and the strudel will become very crispy and thousand-layered. There is an enormous flavor difference between boiled and baked walnut. After this rolling, more than 2/3 of the area of the filo sheet remains free before us. This surface is generously sprinkled with walnuts, cinnamon, and a little sugar (1 tablespoon). Then we roll the coil to the end. Can you picture it?! The finished coil has in its center a pumpkin filling, which is insulated by several layers of pastry, and around it there is a walnut-cinnamon filling with sugar. When during baking the sugar melts and caramelizes, it will merge in a magical way with the walnuts and the cinnamon. This way we will have a soft and juicy center, and around it many layers of crispiness - a perfect contrast. In cooking we always aim for such an opposition of textures and counterpoint, which gives character to every dish... from cream soup with croutons to strudel. It is very important that the filling is placed on the SHORT side of the sheet (see the diagram). This way there is a large area ahead, which will be sprinkled with walnuts, and when the coil is rolled more layers will form around the soft core. If you place the filling on the long side of the sheets - you will have few walnut layers, because the area of the pastry ahead is small. In an oil-greased baking tray arrange the coils side by side, and not in a circle. Brush them on top with butter and sprinkle with a little more sugar. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. When you put the tray in to bake - reduce to 180 degrees. When the color of the pastry begins to turn slightly orange - reduce the oven to 150 degrees and bake until done. Take out the pumpkin strudel and from here on there are 2 options. One of them is... [text continues beyond this page in the source]