On June 17 get whirled up in pastry dough, apples, and spices. It’s National Apple Strudel Day. In German, the word strudel means whirlpool or eddy. This tasty dessert is perfectly described by its German language as the sweet mixture of fruit, sugar, spices, and layers of thin dough that are rolled together and baked. The result is a bubbling, flaky treat.
- According to some people, every day should be ‘apfelstrudel’ day, to give it its proper Austrian name. A dish that dates back to 1696, Apple strudel consists of a center of apple, cinnamon, and raisins, wrapped in crispy layers of pastry, that puff up in the oven; served with a dusting of icing sugar and a dollop of thick cream, comfort food at its finest.
- A strudel is a type of layered pastry with a — most often sweet — filling inside, often served with cream. It became well-known and gained popularity in the 18th century through the Habsburg Empire.
- Strudel is most often associated with Austrian cuisine but is also a traditional pastry in the whole area formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian empire.
- Strudel is a loanword in English from German. The word itself derives from the German word Strudel, which in Middle High German literally means “whirlpool” or “eddy”.
- In Hungary, it is known as rétes, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia as štrudla or savijača, in Slovenia as štrudelj or zavitek, in the Czech Republic as závin or štrúdl, in Romania as ștrudel, and in Slovakia as štrúdľa or závin.
- The word “strudel” means “vortex,” “whirlpool,” or “eddy” in German.
- Traditional Hungarian, Austrian, and Czech Strudel pastry is different from strudels elsewhere, which are often made from puff pastry.
- The oldest Strudel recipe for a millirahmstrudel, is from 1696, in a handwritten recipe at the Viennese City Library, Wiener Stadtbibliothek. The pastry descends from similar Near Eastern pastries (baklava and Turkish cuisine).
- The longest strudel measured 2038 feet 10 inches in an event organized by HUBO in Brussels, Belgium, on 29 November 2009.
- Apple strudels were Texas’ official state pastry from 2003 to 2005, as it is thought to have been one of the first pastries cooked in the state.
- It was the Turkish Baklava pastry, introduced into Austria in 1453 that laid the foundation for strudel.
- Strudel is also associated with Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, particularly of German, Swiss, and Austrian Ashkenazi Jews. Apple and raisin filling is popular among Jews.
- In Hebrew colloquial speech, the symbol @ in email addresses is called “shtrudel”, in reference to the spiral form of strudel. The official Hebrew word for the @ symbol also takes its name from strudel: “keruchith”, which refers to the @ symbol, is the Hebrew word for the strudel pastry (as opposed to the German loan word used in colloquial speech).
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