Serve with vanilla nondairy ice cream, if you wish.
¼ cup dark or light raisins
3 tablespoons rum, fruit juice or water
4 medium Golden Delicious apples, cored and diced
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon canola oil plus more for brushing pastry, optional
About ¼ cup apricot preserves
12 (9-by-13-inch) frozen phyllo leaves, defrosted and at room temperature
About 1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon margarine, melted
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting, optional
Soak raisins in the rum or other liquid until plumped (you can speed this process if you heat raisins and liquid in a microwave 30 seconds). Mix apples, nuts, cinnamon, sugars and 1 tablespoon oil. Drain raisins, reserving ½ tablespoon soaking liquid. Add raisins to apple mixture.
In a small saucepan, heat preserves with 1 tablespoon reserved raisin liquid until preserves melt. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lay one phyllo sheet on work surface and brush lightly with oil or spray with olive oil nonstick cooking spray. Evenly sprinkle sheet with 1 tablespoon crumbs. Top with another sheet, brush or spray with oil and dust with crumbs. Repeat the layering process with three more sheets. Then put a plain phyllo sheet on top. Brush its surface with thinned apricot preserves. Then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons crumbs.
Compactly place half the apple mixture on top sheet, keeping it in a narrow strip parallel to one longer side and 4 inches in from that edge. Leave a 1-inch margin on each of shorter ends. Fold 4-inch edge over apples, then fold in ends to keep apples from falling out. Continue rolling up to completely enclose filling.
Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking spray or grease it. Place strudel, seam side down, in pan. Brush outer surface with half the margarine. Score top diagonally, through a few leaves of pastry, into about 8 even pieces.
Repeat with remaining phyllo, filling, bread crumbs and margarine. Bake both at 350 degrees 35 to 40 minutes until surface is browned and crisp. Remove from oven and let cool slightly in pan on a rack. Use a spatula to loosen bottom of strudel from pan. Carefully transfer strudel to serving tray. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature. Just before serving, dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired. Cut through scored marks. Makes 2 strudels; 8 servings each (total 16 servings).
Per serving: 180 calories, 27 percent calories from fat, 4 grams protein, 30 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams total fiber, 5 grams total fat, no cholesterol, 196 milligrams sodium.
Recipe adapted from "The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook" (Times Books, 1999) by Gloria Kaufer Greene.
© 2002 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
