This year, I took a cue from one of the film’s catchiest songs, ‘My Favorite Things’, which wonderfully captures the homely glow and heartwarming smells of a kitchen in winter. Here is the third of three mouthwatering recipes inspired by the song, which I’ve tested.

One of my favourite Luxembourgish words is “bongert”, or orchard. Although apple, pear, plum and cherry orchards are everywhere you look in Luxembourg, I wouldn’t recommend scrumping (stealing) for the ingredients for making “crisp apple strudels”--there’s possibly more choice in the supermarkets anyway. When choosing your fruit, select an apple with a nice tart flavour to balance out the sweetness of the pastry. I used Granny Smith apples. If you don’t have time to make the pastry, ready-made filo pastry also works.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

750g sliced apples

1.5 tbspground cinnamon

Zest half unwaxed lemon

2 tbsp lemon juice

100g golden caster sugar

75g raisins soaked in rum (30 min)

75g chopped nuts (macadamia)

95g butter

1 tbsp icing sugar

How to make the filling

Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat and place the apple slices to simmer until soft.

Add the remaining ingredients except for the icing sugar.

Once ready, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

How to make the pastry

Mix water, oil, lemon juice and salt in a big bowl.

Stir in half of the flour for a minute, then add the remaining flour, leaving 1 tablespoon for dusting. Work the flour until it forms a dough. Knead it for 10 minutes until smooth. Spread the half of a teaspoon of oil over the dough, leave it to sit in a covered bowl for one hour.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a floured surface. Pick it up and using your knuckles, stretch the dough while turning it around. Place it on the floured parchment paper and gently continue stretching with your hands until it starts to look translucent. Shape into a rectangle. Add your filling to one half of the strudel dough, fold an inch of pastry at the sides over the filling. Brush the uncovered strudel with melted butter. Starting with the end with the filling, start to roll the strudel. Place it on the parchment paper seam side down. Brush with melted butter. Bake in an oven at 190°C for 30 minutes.

This recipe was originally published in the October-November 2020 edition of Delano Magazine