Cherry strudel.

If you’re after a super easy dessert that takes almost no time at all to prepare and zero cooking ability, is low in sugar and high in flavour, and will also impress whoever you serve it to then look no further.

If you’re like me and tend to stock up on random ingredients you then promptly forget about, you may even have a jar of Morello’s or even some frozen cherries lurking, in which case you need to make this asap.

Make sure to cook the strudel long enough, you want soft smooshy cherries and hot flaky pastry.

Yum.

Options:

• You can add some fresh ricotta to the filling, placing it on the filo before adding cherries. If you do then use about 300g ricotta and halve the cherries.
• You can add a teaspoon of rum, brandy, or grand marnier to the cherries with the sugar and zest, or even some vanilla extract. You could also use lemon zest instead of orange.
• I usually tend to sprinkle a little bit of almond meal on the filo before the cherries to soak up the juices, but it’s not essential.
• You can add some crushed walnuts to the cherries before rolling it up.

What you need

• 2 jars of sour Morello cherries, drained,
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• zest of one orange
• 8 sheets of filo pastry
• 50 g unsalted butter, melted

What to do

• Pre heat the oven to 200 C and get a baking sheet ready lined with baking paper. Drain the cherries well and transfer to a large bowl, and sprinkle with the sugar and zest {and vanilla and/or rum if using}. Melt the butter.
• Place one sheet of filo on a clean tea towel and brush some of the melted butter over it, and repeat with the remaining sheets of filo. If you like you can sprinkle a tbsp of almond meal over the final sheet at this stage.
• Arrange the cherries {and nuts and/or ricotta if using} along the long side closest to you, taking up about a third of the pastry, and leave 2 cm on each end. Tuck the ends in and, using the tea towel, roll it up tightly and place the strudel seam side down on the baking paper lined sheet. Brush with some butter and bake for ten minutes on 200 C then lower the temperature to about 160 C for a further 20 to 30 minutes, until it’s golden and crispy.
• Allow it to cool before dusting it with icing sugar just before serving. Some good quality vanilla ice cream wouldn’t go astray either. 😉