Cherry Strudel

Buttery, flaky puff pastry surrounding tart red cherries, and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar, this cherry strudel comes together quickly and easily!

What is a Cherry Strudel?

Technically a strudel is a dessert of thin pastry rolled up around a fruit filling and baked. However, there are quite a few variations including using puff pastry and a version using yeasted dough. This recipe uses puff pastry as the dough and has a tart cherry filling.

Where to buy Puff Pastry?

You can buy puff pastry at most grocery stores in the freezer aisle either by the fruit or by the ice cream section.

How to thaw Puff Pastry?

I recommend reading the packaging to see how it says to defrost it. Most brands will vary on the recommended way to defrost it.

Tips for making this Cherry Strudel Recipe

• Stir the filling constantly while cooking to prevent it from clumping or burning.
• Make sure the cherry filling has fully cooled before adding it into the puff pastry.
• When rolling out puff pastry it is important that it has fully defrosted but not warm. If it is warm, place the dough, covered, in the fridge for 20 minutes to cool.
• Do not under bake this recipe. Puff pastry needs to be a solid golden brown color to indicate that it is fully baked. Otherwise the inside will be under baked and under baked puff pastry is not what you want.

Ingredients for Cherry Strudel

• Tart Cherries: Fresh or canned tart cherries will work for this but canned are great when fresh cherries aren’t in season. Be sure to use cherries in water rather than syrup for the best flavor.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar is used in the cherry filling to add in a little sweetness.
• Corn starch: corn starch thickens the cherry filling so that it doesn’t all run out of the strudel.
• Lemon juice: Lemon juice enhances the cherry flavor.
• Puff Pastry: Homemade or store bought work for this recipe but I prefer store bought for ease. My two favorite brands are Dufour and Pepperidge farm. I only recommend these two as other brands don’t puff up as well.
• Bread Crumbs: Bread crumbs are crucial in this recipe to absorb any extra liquid from the cherry filling as it bakes. Use only plain bread crumbs, the other option is to use ground up cookies such as graham crackers or butter cookies.
• Egg Yolk: An egg yolk is mixed with a tablespoon of water to create an egg wash which is then brushed on the surface of the puff pastry. This helps the puff pastry color in the oven.

How do you make Cherry Strudel?

Cherry Filling

• In a small sauce pot whisk the corn starch and sugar together.
• Whisk in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to create a paste.
• Add in the drained cherries and stir to combine. Switch to a rubber spatula to prevent the cherries from getting stuck inside the whisk.
• Place the pot over medium heat and cook until it begins to thicken, stirring constantly.
• Once thick, remove from the heat and pour into a large shallow dish to let it cool.

Assemble

• Refer to the package instructions to thaw the puff pastry and preheat the oven to 400 F accordingly.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll the sheet of puff pastry out, only lengthwise until it is about 18″ long.
• Visually divide the puff pastry into thirds lengthwise without actually cutting it. Make diagonal slices into the sides of the puff pastry, on the left and right third, at a 45 degree angle, going down.
• Wherever there are triangles of dough at the top and bottom, formed between the slits and the center third rectangle, once all slits have been made, cut them out.
• Place the puff pastry onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the bread crumbs over the middle third rectangle of the dough leaving a 1/2″ border at the bottom and a 1″ border at the top with no bread crumbs.
• Spread the cooled cherry filling over the bread crumbs, leaving the same borders.
• Whisk an egg yolk and and 1 tablespoon of water together in a bowl with a fork.
• Starting at the bottom fold up the center third of the puff pastry that has no filling on it to enclose a 1/2″ of the filling.
• Then, alternate a strip from the left side and then one from the right side, over the filling, until you reach the last two strips.
• Fold the bottom flap up and then fold the bottom two strips over the top using the egg wash to stick the strips down.

Bake

• Brush the top of the strudel with the remaining egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until puffy and golden brown. Rotate the baking sheet halfway after 20 minutes to brown evenly.
• Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Optionally serve with Vanille Soße, powdered sugar, or vanilla ice cream.

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