Ricotta cheese strudel is a variation of a traditional, well known and quintessentially Viennese Apple Strudel, it is a very scrumptious dessert, made with very thin, elastic pastry, and the filling contains ricotta or curd cheese, sugar, vanilla bean extract, eggs yolks, grated lemon zest and raisins soaked in dark rum, grappa or just lukewarm water.

Apple strudel was first mentioned in 1696, and later conquered all the countries that were once ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and curd cheese strudel is as popular and traditional in Austria as the famous Apple strudel.

All three types of strudels (apple, curd cheese and cherry) are very much loved in the North Adriatic, in Slovenian Istra, where I come from, and in the neighbouring city of Trieste, in Italy, and part of its province.

Ricotta strudel is regularly and traditionally baked with curd cheese (called skuta in Slovenian) in local households, and sometimes, if you are lucky enough, you might find it in more informal family run restaurants (skutin štrudelj or skutin zavitek).

This very delicious sweet treat really takes me back to my childhood, not only my mother frequently baked it, we also had it for school dinner as a pudding, and it did go down a treat.

I am sharing here my mother's recipe for ricotta strudel, this slightly off the beaten track recipe, made with home made pastry, but if you are too daunted by the idea of making your own dough, or simply do not have time to make it, you can still indulge yourself, and cut corners a bit by using store bought ready made pastry.

Recipe

Ingredients

Will make two separate strudels.

You can use store bought ready made puff pastry, shortcrust or filo pastry.

Ingredients for home-made strudel dough

250g all purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp neutral tasting vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
sea salt, a pinch
60ml lukewarm water, or as needed

Ingredients for ricotta or curd cheese filling

500g ricotta or curd cheese
100g raisins
2 egg yolks
80g caster sugar (I recommend 100g of sugar if using curd cheese as more acidic compared to ricotta)
1 ½ vanilla bean extract
1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest
3 Tbsp dark rum, grappa or lukewarm water (for soaking the raisins)
generous knob of butter, melted (for brushing the strudels before baking them)

Method

Before starting with the recipe, place the raisins in a small bowl, pour dark rum, grappa or lukewarm water over them, and let them soak and plump up for about 30 minutes (you can leave them to soak for longer or overnight).

To make the dough

Sift the flour in a big mixing bowl and make a well.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix slightly beaten egg, oil, vinegar or lemon juice, (the acidity will help to relax gluten in the flour making the dough more stretchy) a pinch of sea salt, and lukewarm water. Pour the mixture into a flour well.

With the fork, stir the mixture with the flour until well combined. Only if the mixture is very wet and sticky, add a little bit of flour at a time, until the dough comes nicely together, then work the dough with your hands.

Transfer the dough on a lightly floured working surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until nice and smooth.

After this time, the dough should be moist and elastic and not sticky. Add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky to knead.

In order to further encourage the development of the gluten, resulting in a very elastic dough, slam the dough onto the working surface a few times.

Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in a clean bowl, previously brushed with oil.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough rest for about 30-60 minutes at room temperature (strudel dough has no yeast, so do not expect the dough to rise or double in size, it needs to rest for gluten to relax).

To make the filling

Place ricotta or curd cheese in a fairly large bowl and stir.

Add caster sugar, vanilla bean extract, egg yolks, grated lemon zest and mix well all the ingredients.

Drain the raisins, remove excess liquid, add to the mixture.

Set aside for later use.

Preheat the oven to 190C static or equivalent.

Divide the dough in half to make two separate strudels (easier to work with).

Place half of the dough on a clean and lightly floured table cloth. Flour the rolling pin and start rolling out the dough. While rolling, to prevent sticking, flour the dough and the surface every now and then.

When the dough reaches about 20 cm in diameter pick it up and keep stretching it. The best way to do so is to use the back of your hands, and in particular the knuckles, but make sure you remove any sharp jewellery first.

When the dough becomes difficult to handle as it becomes bigger and thinner, place it on a lightly floured tablecloth.

With your hands (tip of the fingers) keep stretching gently the dough on the tablecloth to paper thin consistency, from the inside to the outside working your way round the sheet of dough.Keep stretching until the sheet of dough starts to look almost translucent and you will be able to see a pattern of your tablecloth through it.You should end up with a thin sheet of dough stretched more or less into a rectangular shape with a diameter of approximately 40 cm which will fit into a standard 40 cm baking tray.

If you notice that the edges are still a bit thick, stretch them further very gently, or cut them off. If you leave the edges thick, when rolling the strudel, they will form quite a thick layer at the very centre of the strudel risking to remain slightly underbaked.

Place and spoon evenly half of the ricotta mixture (you will use the other half of the mixture to make a second strudel) over ¾ of the dough sheet leaving about 2-3cm to the edge.

Fold in the side ends of the sheet to prevent filling coming out during rolling.

Using the tablecloth to help you, roll the dough all the way and roll it directly onto a sheet of baking parchment, seam side down.Transfer very gently the baking parchment with the rolled strudel on a baking tray.

Repeat the process with the other half of the dough to make a second strudel.

Brush both strudels with a bit of melted butter.

Bake in the preheated oven on the middle shelf for about 40-45 minutes, or until the strudel crust turns nice golden in colour.

Take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit.

Serve it slightly warm or at room temperature.

Dust with regular icing sugar or vanilla icing sugar, cut into slices and serve it on its own or with custard.

Just a thought

You can make the strudel dough ahead and keep it refrigerated in an airtight container for up to two days. Before using the dough take it out of the fridge allowing it to come to a room temperature.

Ricotta strudel is best eaten the day is made. You can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days or overnight on the counter.

You can make a less traditional version of this strudel and replace raisins for chocolate chips in the ricotta filling.

Wine suggestion

Colli Orientali del Friuli Verduzzo Sottozona Cialla DOC “Verduzzo di Cialla” 2017 - Ronchi di Cialla

This Austrian style Curd Cheesecake is a sweet dessert, delicious in its simplicity, consisting of one main layer mixture of curd cheese or ricotta, flavoured with sugar, lemon zest, vanilla extract, eggs and the raisins that have been luxuriously soaked in dark rum.

This cake is quite moist, therefore refreshing and perfect for any occasion, it is very easy to make and a great recipe to keep in the repertoire for cakes that require minimum effort but deliver maximum satisfaction.

In Slovenia, where I come from, curd cheese, in Slovenian called skuta (also referred to as farmer's cheese or baker's cheese) has always been a very popular and commonly used ingredient in baking.

For this recipe, you can easily replace curd cheese for ricotta, which is what I used to do when I first arrived in England, and struggled to find curd cheese, but it is now available these days in most bigger supermarkets or Polish food stores.

My mother and my maternal grandmother would make this cake very often, this is proper home made rustic baking, and I am sharing here this nostalgic and special family recipe.

Give it a go and try this wonderful cake, but please do remember, despite the temptation, it is really important to completely cool down the cake before cutting it into slices.