The first casualty of climate disaster was our plum tree. It used to supply friend and neighbor with juicy yellow fleshed Italian plums. I cooked and baked with those plums for decades, but no more. The prunes we made in the past couple of years of course are dwindling. To make it go a bit further I paired them with a small amount of dried pears in what I thought was an unusual combination. Both were pretty dry so I soaked them in premium rum overnight. Now Jimre always loved prunes, his family used to have an orchard in the Village of Ölbő. I was never a fan and that is why I decided to soak them in rum. As an experiment using commercial filo made perfect sense. My only regret I didn’t make two strudels. It must be because of the rum.
Rum Soaked Dried Pear and Prune Strudel
1/3 cup premium rum
1 2/3 cup prunes
1 2/3 cup dried pears
3 Tbsp honey
1 pkg vanilla sugar
grated peel of 1 lemon
6 sheets of filo pastry
1/2 cup melted butter
• Place the frozen filo dough in the refrigerator for overnight.
• Place the dried fruits in a smaller bowl to soak in the rum.
• Turn it over a few times to cover all the fruit with rum.
• Cover and leave it soaking overnight.
• Next day add the honey, vanilla sugar and the grated peel to the rum soaked fruit.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Next take out 6 sheets of filo and place it on a large piece of plastic wrap on a smooth, clean surface.
• Cover the filo right away with a large piece of plastic wrap.
• Rewrap the unused dough tightly, box it and put it back in the freezer or refrigerate it up to two days.
• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Melt the butter.
• Place one sheet of filo on a sheet of parchment paper.
• Dip a soft pastry brush into the melted butter and lightly brush it all over the pastry.
• Place the next filo on the top, repeating with the remaining sheets.
• Try not to position tears on top of one another.
• After the last sheet is buttered, gently arrange the prepared fruit near the long end of the filo sheets.
• Using the parchment paper, loosely flip the filo over the filling forming a log.
• Gently lift the log onto the parchment lined baking sheet.
• Tuck the ends under.
• Brush the top first with butter and then with the egg wash.
• Sprinkle sugar on the top
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and let the strudel cool to room temperature.
• Dust with icing sugar and cut into slices
• Cover up leftovers with a clean kitchen towel and store on the counter or in the cupboard. It will keep for a couple of days. However strudel is best on the day it is made.
