Unique Apple Shturdel (Strudel) from the village of Trud

1. The apples (the best shturdel is made when different apple varieties are combined) are washed, peeled, cored and grated, but not too finely.
2. The grated apples are salted, stirred and left for 10 minutes to release some of their water. Then they are carefully squeezed by hand to remove the excess water, so that you get a crisp and not a soggy shturdel.
3. To the squeezed apples add sugar to taste and one packet of cinnamon and stir well. This is the strudel filling.
4. Melt the butter.
5. Crush the walnuts, but not too finely, so that pieces can still be felt.
6. Take one sheet of phyllo pastry and butter its entire surface. Place a second sheet on top of it and butter it as well. Always use two sheets to roll one shturdel roll.
7. And now comes the big secret, which is extremely simple and therefore brilliant.
8. Along one edge of the sheet (the narrower one), place the filling along its whole length. Only there!!! Then roll up the roll with the phyllo, but only 2-3 turns. The aim is to wrap the wet filling in phyllo, to isolate it from the walnuts you are about to add. This way they will not get wet and therefore will not boil, but will bake, and the shturdel will become very crisp and many-layered. There is a huge difference in taste between a boiled and a baked walnut.
9. After this rolling, more than 2/3 of the surface of the phyllo sheet remains free in front of you. This surface is sprinkled generously with walnuts, cinnamon and a little sugar (1 tbsp). Then roll the roll to the end. Can you picture it?! The finished roll has an apple filling in its center, isolated by several layers of phyllo, and around it is a walnut-cinnamon filling with sugar. When the sugar melts and caramelizes during baking, it will merge in a magical way with the walnuts and cinnamon. So you will have a soft and juicy center, and around it many layers of crispness - 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 the shturdel.
10. Arrange the rolls next to one another in a buttered baking tin. Brush them on top with butter and sprinkle with a little more sugar.
11. Preheat the oven to 200°C. When you put the tin in to bake, lower it to 180°C. When the color of the phyllo starts to turn slightly orange, lower the oven to 150°C and bake until done.
12. Take out the shturdel and from here there are 2 options. One is my grandmother's - leave the shturdel to cool completely and then dust with powdered sugar. The other is more modern - to seek a second counterpoint, i.e. to serve the hot shturdel with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a little mint for luxury. This option is modern, because in late socialism in the village there was ice cream only during the village fair...

ADDITIONAL NOTES: The butter can be replaced with vegetable fat to get a lenten (fasting) shturdel - as I said at the beginning, this is how we make the pumpkin roll (tikvenik) for Christmas Eve, by exactly this recipe. The filling then is not apples but pumpkin (what a surprise) and from there on the rolling technique is the same as the one already described. This is the moment to admit some of my "perversions" with this recipe over the last 20 years, which somehow are also liked by my loved ones (because they are loved ones). Sometimes when I make apple shturdel, I look for a third counterpoint too - I flavor the apple filling with vanilla OR cardamom (not both together) and the contrast is between the aromas of the soft filling and the walnuts with cinnamon around it. In another case I flavor the apple filling with rum essence and add raisins soaked (and then drained) in rum. Then I do not use ordinary sugar but Muscovado, which gives a unique caramel aroma. Another time, instead of raisins I have added chopped dried apricots to the apples, even dried cranberries. I have also added diced Turkish delight (lokum) to the apple filling, but then I do not add sugar to the apples, only to the walnuts. And more - raisins can be added to the filling of the pumpkin roll too.... In short (as this got very long) - even if you take nothing from my experiments and only the rolling technique inspires you - that is still something. Do not forget that a person either wins or learns, and if you do not try - you will neither win nor learn... Thank you (Spolay Vi)! Dr. Katsarov (psychiatrist and psychotherapist)