Strudel of pastry cream

How to prepare a cream strudel . At home when we were little, one of those simple and successful dessert recipes .

One of the ones that we liked the most and that we prepared with my mother, were the cream strudel . I perfectly remember going to the supermarket in the neighborhood, buying the puff pastry and the mess.

For this reason at home the strudel is always in our childhood memories, and for that reason also, I assure you that I am almost an expert in strudel.

Today I have prepared a strudel of pastry cream at home that, I must say, I loved it.

The strudel is a traditional cake of uncertain origin, it is a rectangular cake made up of several layers of puff pastry that alternate between pastry cream and / or whipped cream .

It seems that the origin of this cake dates back to the 17th century, since at that time it appears in the book French cuisine , a description of how it should be and how to prepare it. Today it is a worldwide known and marketed cake, in the United States it is known as Napoleon and it is normally filled with almond cream.

If we want to start making homemade puff pastry, with what would be a luxury cake, we can also enjoy at home a great creamy strudel using the ready-made puff pastry plates that exist in the market.

I recommend that you buy those that are rectangular to take advantage of the material as much as possible.

Preparation of the pastry cream strudel

1. We start by preparing the pastry cream , something that we can do before we decide to put on the strudel. We start by diluting the cornstarch in 75 ml. of milk and reserve.
2. In a bowl beat the eggs with the sugar until it foams and reserve.
3. Heat the rest of the milk with the lemon and orange peel and the cinnamon stick. When it begins to boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and add the beaten eggs with sugar.
4. Mix well and put the saucepan back on the fire, incorporating the milk with the cornstarch and removing the skins and the cinnamon stick.
5. Without stopping stirring at any time and over medium heat, we cook the cream as it thickens. When it returns to a boil, remove from the heat and continue stirring for a few more minutes until there is a smooth and smooth cream.
6. Pour the pastry cream into a wide bowl and stir periodically until it has cooled.
7. It is important to remove the cream from time to time so that it does not form a hard crust on the surface as it cools. Pouring it into a wide fountain will help us in the cooling process.
8. When the cream is completely cold, cover it with plastic wrap so that it is in direct contact with the cream. We keep it in the fridge until the moment of using it.

Preparation of the puff pastry layers of the strudel

1. To prepare the puff pastry we use a plate and a half.
2. We cut each of the plates into two halves and save one of the halves for another use.
3. We can always prepare a strudel with more layers. We just have to take into account that it will be necessary to prepare more pastry cream for the filling or use whipped cream.
4. We cover an ovenproof dish with parchment paper and place two of the puff pastry halves on top.
5. We prick the entire surface of the plates with a fork to prevent the dough from rising during baking. Sprinkle with plenty of sugar.
6. We cover with a moving sheet of sulfurized paper and place the third layer of puff pastry on top.
7. We repeat the operation of pricking the entire surface and sprinkling with sugar and we place another layer of paper covering it.
8. If we have a second baking tray we place it directly on top, this will make the dough not rise when baked.
9. With the oven previously heated to 180º C we bake the pieces for 35 minutes, with heat up and down.
10. We remove the pieces from the oven and let them cool on a rack before assembling the strudel.

Assembly and final presentation of the cream strudel

1. When the puff pastries are very cold, prepare the cream by removing it from the fridge and beating it again to homogenize it.
2. We fill a pastry bag or a simple plastic bag to which we will cut the tip.
3. We place the first layer of puff pastry on the final serving platter. We cover the entire surface with pastry cream.
4. We place the second layer of puff pastry and repeat the operation of covering with cream.
5. We finish by putting the last layer and finally sprinkle with plenty of icing sugar.
6. In an easy and fast way we can enjoy a great cream strudel. We can serve it whole or present it in portions by cutting them with a serrated knife.
7. It is a strudel cake that I am sure you will repeat, delicious.

Be sure to enjoy all the yummy sweets in our dessert recipes .  You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album.