Cranberry Strudel? Yes, Please!

Today, Valeria continues her story about Terschelling with some interesting details regarding the culinary side of her experience AND a savory dessert recipe.

“Another thing I remember with much pleasure from my vacation to Terschelling is related to the local cuisine. Every meal was a delight for me, especially because almost all the meals of the day were based on fish, salmon being the main ingredient – be it smoked, broiled, baked or in combination with vegetables or rice.

And then there were those desserts… I would always choose one with fruits and here, on the island, my choice was easy: they had all kinds of fruit desserts but, most of all, they had cranberries desserts. Like I said in the first part of this story, cranberries were brought here in 1840 and they can be found almost everywhere on the island ever since.

This is a recipe for cranberry strudel, which I got from a Dutch colleague I met during the conference – I tried it just days after I returned home and it was awesome:
The recipe is really easy. What you need is:
– for the filling: 3 cups of cranberries, 300 g sugar, one cup of water, a few drops vanilla extract, one teaspoon cinnamon, ½ cup honey;
– one pack of phyllo dough (or you can use pastry dough);
– one tablespoon of flour and one teaspoon of butter (if you prefer not to butter the pan, you can use parchment paper).

Start by preparing the filling: wash the cranberries and put them in a bowl, pour a cup of water and add vanilla extract and cinnamon. Boil the fruits, stirring constantly until they are soft and form a homogeneous mixture. Allow this mixture to cool.
Meanwhile, place a sheet of dough on the table and cut a piece of it so you can fill it with a spoonful of your cranberry mixture and then roll it to form the strudel. Make small cuts on the surface of the strudel and brush with honey. Repeat this operation with the remaining dough.
Heat the pan in the oven and then slightly butter it and sprinkle with flour (or use parchment paper, as I said earlier). Place the strudels in the pan and let them cook for approximately 20-30 minutes until they turn a light brown color. Then remove the pan from oven, let the strudels cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. There you have it: Dutch cranberry strudel!
Oh, and let me give you my favorite tip: you can serve your cranberry strudel with a nice cup of vanilla ice cream – so delicious!
Bon appetite!”