In researching my family’s history, I learned that my ancestors passed through Kansas City in the 1930’s. One of my distant relatives settled here and ran a mercantile that provided supplies to prospectors heading to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. I have a picture, but no address, of his home that was in Kansas City, Kansas. I occasionally set out on an adventure to see if I can find the home.
This past weekend, I attended a cooking class at the Strawberry Hill Museum and Cultural Center. I was particularly interested in their Hall of Immigrants that contains pictures and ancestral artifacts from the families that settled in that area during the late 1800’s, which happens to be the same time of the Klondike Gold Rush.
We learned how to make Apple Strudel the way that our teacher’s Croatian mother taught her. As we slowly and methodically incorporated the flour into the dough, peeled the apples, stretched the dough and built our strudel, we got to know each other and all of the volunteers. The volunteers also grew up in the community and were from Poland and Germany. They all learned to make the same dough, but joked about how the Croatians took all the peel off the apples. The Poles thought it was OK to leave a few peels on and the Germans thought you could leave all the peels on and it would be just as good. They joked that it just depended on which side of “The Bridge” that you lived. Everyone agreed that the smell of apples and cinnamon baking made the entire house smell wonderful. We had the opportunity to purchase strudel plates that were hand crafted in Poland and could go from the freezer, to the oven, to the table. As I stretched me dough with a friend, I could just imagine mothers and daughters across the ages, sharing stories as they prepared this fall tradition together.
Monday morning as I pulled my new strudel plate containing the fruit of my labor out of the freezer and popped it into the oven, I felt just a little more connected to my ancestors and my adopted Kansas City home. When I got to PRIER, I shared warm strudel with my PRIER family. I doubt that a new tradition was born, but I do have a pretty new plate!
Croatian Apple Strudel
1 Cup: Warm Water
1/2 Cup: Vegetable Oil (plus 1/2 cup for the bowl to rest the dough)
1/2 Egg Beaten (break the egg into a bowl, beat with a fork and use half of the mixture)
1/4 Teaspoon: Salt
3 Cups: All Purpose Flour (plus 1/2 cup for kneading and 1/2 cup for stretching)
In a large mixer, using the beater, combine water, oil and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour one half cup at a time. Use a spatula to scrape any flour off the sides of the bowl. Add each additional half cup of flour only after the last half cup is completely incorporated. Once you get half of the flour added, you will probably need to switch from a beater to a dough hook. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface to knead for three minutes. After kneading, pick the dough up with both hands and then through it down on the table top 30 times. Place in a bowl containing a half cup vegetable oil and let rest for 30 minutes in a warm place.
1 Stretching Cloth (this can be a table cloth, but it will get dirty)
2 Sticks: Butter, melted
1 Cup: Crushed Vanilla Wafers
10 Large: Johnathan Apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 Tablespoon: Cinnamon
2 Cups: Sugar
1 Egg White
Spread the cloth out on a table and sprinkle the remaining flour over a 3 foot by 3 foot area. Drain the oil from the dough and turn out onto the cloth. Gently pull the dough into a 3 foot by 3 foot square. You can do this with a rolling pin, but the traditional way is for two people to gently pull it between their fingers with both hands. The finished square will be very thin. Spread the butter all over the dough. This will make two strudels. Build the base for each strudel by spreading the vanilla wafers into two 12 inch by 12 inch squares on one half of the dough. Cover with even rows of apples. All of your apples need to go the same direction so that when you roll the dough, they do not poke holes in the dough. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the apples. With two hands, pick up the cloth on the same side of the table as you placed the apples. Slowly raise it until the dough begins to roll. Keep pulling the cloth until you have completely rolled all of the dough and the seam is on the bottom of the roll. Cut into two separate rolls. Trim away excess dough and tuck remaining dough over to make smooth ends. Place on a backing sheet or strudel pan either lined with baking paper or heavily oiled. Glaze with egg white and bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 degrees or until golden brown. Cool on a rack to keep the dough from getting soggy. You can freeze the uncooked strudels to save them for later. The cooking instructions do not change for a frozen strudel.
Enjoy!
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