Pear strudel
Štrudla od kruške
“Strudel is a Central European dessert of Hungarian
origin. Since Croatia was once a part of the Habsburg
Empire, it’s a favourite national dish for us as well,”
says Kuvačić. “There are many versions and
techniques for making strudel. One classic filling is
apple and sour (morello) cherry, but you can also use
savoury flavours, such as goat’s cheese, spinach or
ricotta. Most people in Croatia make their own pastry,
but you can also use pre-made puff pastry. Pear
strudel is a favourite of mine, and it goes very well
with chocolate, so I recommend serving it with a
chocolate sauce. It’s also good with ice-cream.”
Serves 6
115 gm caster sugar
1 kg pears, peeled, cored and cut into
1cm dice
1 tbsp lemon juice
40 ml kruškovac (Croatian pear liqueur; see
note), dark rum or calvados
95 gm brown sugar
200 gm butter, melted
100 gm sponge fingers, such as savoiardi or
lady fingers, roughly crushed
100 gm walnuts, crushed
95 gm dried figs, chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
60 gm sultanas
12 fillo pastry sheets
50 gm dried breadcrumbs
Olive oil spray, for greasing
Icing sugar mixture, for dusting
Ice-cream (optional), to serve
Chocolate sauce
200 ml heavy cream
50 ml milk
200 gm dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
20 gm Dutch-process cocoa powder1 For the chocolate sauce, combine the cream
and milk in a saucepan over medium heat and
bring to just below boiling point. Remove the
pan from the heat and gently whisk in the
chocolate and cocoa, whisking until smooth.
Leave to cool. Chocolate sauce will keep
refrigerated for up to 5 days.
2 Heat a large frying pan over high heat and,
when it’s very hot, add the sugar and cook until+This is an edited
extract fromDalmatia
by Ino Kuvačić (Hardie
Grant Books, $50, hbk)
available in book stores
nationally.it turns a deep golden brown (2-3 minutes). Add
the diced pear and lemon juice, and sauté, stirring
with a metal spoon, for about 5 minutes, then stir
in the liqueur and remove the pan from the heat.
3 Place a third of the sautéed pears in a food
processor and add the brownsugar and half
the melted butter. Purée until smooth. Stir this
mixture back into the remaining pears. Add the
sponge fingers, walnuts, dried figs, cinnamon,
nutmeg and sultanas. Mix until well combined,
then set aside to cool.
4 Preheat oven to 200C. Place a sheet of fillo
pastry on a work surface and brush with a little of
the remaining melted butter. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp
of breadcrumbs. Top with another sheet of fillo
pastry, brush with butter sprinkle with 1 tbsp of
breadcrumbs and continue layering until you
have six layers. Spoon half the pear mixture along
the length of the pastry, leaving a 3cm border at
the short ends. Fold the ends in and roll up the
strudel. Lift it carefully onto a baking tray, cover
with a clean cloth and repeat with remaining fillo
and filling. Spray both with olive oil and bake until
the pastry is golden (25 minutes). Stand for 10
minutes, then dust with icing sugar, drizzle with
chocolate sauce, slice and serve.
NoteCroatian pear liqueur is available at select
bottle shops such as Dan Murphy’s.#Pear strudel