When I was in college I thought it was a spectacular idea to take German 101. My dad served a two year church service mission in Germany and I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to small chat with him and share secrets that no one else could understand in our family. Well, I was able to do that a little bit back then but now 10 years later about the only I took from that class was remembering how good German food was ha!

At the end of the semester we got together at the professor’s home and had a wonderful German meal together. We each brought a German dish and had quite the smorgasbord of schnitzels, red cabbage salad and of course for dessert we had traditional apple strudel, or as the Germans call it: apfelstrudel.

His method of making the strudel for a party with 30 people involved stretching (not rolling) out dough the entire length of the table and we filled it with the yummy goodies of butter, sugar, cinnamon, apples, raisins and walnuts. It was so delicious!

I really fell in love with strudel that day but I know I would not go to those lengths to make it very often these days. Until…….I found a way to mimic it with my favorite go-to flaky, buttery pastery cheat…..you guessed it! Puff pastry sheets.

I’m such a sucker for a fresh, warm baked good like a Danish or croissant so I love the convenience of having puff pastry sheets in the freezer to make my favorite occasional indulgence.

I saw a beautiful recipe for homemade apple cinnamon toaster strudel and I couldn’t wait to make it! This satisfied my craving for the apple strudel I discovered in my German class all those years ago, yet also meets my daily quota for cream cheese (because if only cream cheese could be one of the 5 food groups we have to have every day, right?). These apple toaster strudels are topped with a lovely cream cheese icing which is just the cherry on top, so to speak.

You might thinking that all you probably do is plop some apple pie filling out of the can into some puff pastry dough, bada bing bada boom—you’ve got dessert! While I’m sure that would be super delicious, this recipe has you grate the apples, so it’s a finer, gooier result. I’m all about the gooey pastries!

This recipe is pretty much just apple, but you could certainly add anything else you wanted in the middle like raisins, nuts, etc. to give you the flavor you’re going after.

Here’s how you make apple cinnamon toaster strudels:

Apple Cinnamon Toaster Strudels

For the crust:

1 box (2 sheets) puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the filling:
2 baking apples, peeled and cored (I've used both Honeycrisp and Gala)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of kosher salt

For the icing:
4 ounces cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the filling, grate the apples on the large holes of a box grater. In a heavy saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add the grated apples and toss until coated. Add the brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick and syrupy, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in remaining tablespoon of (chilled) butter. Cool the filling to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Unfold one sheet of puff pastry onto a well-floured work surface, continuing to flour the work surface as necessary throughout the rolling/trimming process. Roll out the pastry to form a very large, thin rectangle. Trim the edges of the dough to make a 10x14-inch rectangle. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut out 8 (3.5x5- inch) rectangles.

Transfer 4 of the rectangles to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spoon a scant 2 tablespoons of the apple filling into the center of these. Spread the filling evenly across the pastry, leaving a 1/2-inch space clean around the perimeter. Brush the other 4 rectangles with the egg wash. Place an egg-washed rectangle directly over a filled rectangle (egg wash touching the filling). Using your fingertips, firmly seal the edges on all sides (dip your fingers in a little flour if the dough is sticky).

Continue with the rest of the rectangles. Prick each strudel all over with a fork, including the sealed edges. Repeat this step with the second sheet of puff pastry.

Bake the strudels until puffed and golden-brown, about 35 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack before eating. Frost and serve warm.

For the icing, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract together. Spoon the glaze into a small Ziploc bag and seal. Snip a small hole in one corner of the bag and pipe desired amount onto each pastry.

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