I have a new obsession and it’s called Pecan Chocolate Strudel. I knew that it was going to be delicious, but when I tried the first bite I couldn’t handle the excitement. There’s so much to love: the texture of the filling, the chocolate flavour mixed with the pecans and sweet strudel dough that breaks as you cut through it.
I’ve shown you how to make a strudel before when I made apple strudel. The dough is exactly the same and the rolling as well, so I’ll leave you that video here so you can see how it’s done :). The only difference is that for this pecan chocolate strudel, I didn’t spread out the filling over half of the dough but rather left it to one side forming a rectangle (you’ll get it if you watch the video) because I didn’t want to break the dough as I spread the filling out. Besides that, everything is the same.
I’m so happy about how this pecan chocolate strudel turned out! The mix of chocolate and pecans is a classic and cannot be ignored. If you cannot get pecans you can switch them for walnuts, pistachios, almonds or a mix of all of the above. It’s true that pecans are sooo much yummier but we need to work with what we have :).
Can you tell how thin the strudel dough layers are? That’s the real charm in this dessert because it breaks as you cut through it. It is the perfect finish to any meal and it’s certain to impress everyone at the table. For the filling I used a mix of dark chocolate (65% cacao) and milk chocolate. I like that because it results in the perfect amount of sweetness/bitterness. However, if you prefer, you can use only one type of chocolate, too :). The most important thing is that it’s nice quality chocolate so that the dessert is at its fullest potential.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 145 g all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 80 ml warm water
- ½ tsp apple cider vinegar
- 15 ml vegetable oil
For the filling
- 100 g dark chocolate I used 65% cacao
- 100 g milk chocolate
- 20 g unsalted butter
- 210 g pecans or walnuts
- ½ tsp salt
To paint the strudel
- unsalted butter melted
To finish
- Icing sugar
- melted chocolate
- pecans toasted and chopped
Instructions
Para la masa
- Mix the flour and salt. Make a hole in the centre and pour the rest of the ingredients in. Mix with a spatula first and then finish by kneading with your hands without any extra flour.
- Develop the gluten in the flour for a nice elasticity by slamming the dough on the table for about 15-20min. For further reference, watch the video :).
- Make a ball out of the dough and lightly coat it with vegetable oil. Let it rest for 1 hour at room temperature in a bowl covered with a kitchen cloth. If you want to make the dough ahead, you can leave it to rest in the fridge covered with oil and cling film for a maximum of 3 days and then let it come completely to room temperature before going to the next step.
- While the dough is resting, go ahead and make the filling.
- Once it has rested, stretch it out on a clean and lightly floured surface using a rolling pin. Get it as thin as you can.
- Lay the dough on a couple of kitchen cloths or on a table cloth and stretch out the dough forming a rectangle, pulling gently. If you have long fingernails, then make sure to use the back of your fists for this. If you can get someone else to help you stretch it out from across the table, then it’s even faster. Make sure it’s not wider than your baking tray so you don’t have to fold it for it to fit.
- Stop stretching once you can see through it. Then cut off the thick edges using a clean pair of scissors and use these trimmings to stretch them and cover any tears in the dough.
For the filling
- Toast the pecans in a preheated oven at 180°C / 350°F for 3-5 minutes or until lightly golden. Be careful because they burn in an instant. Chop them once they're cold.
- Place both chocolates and butter in a bowl and melt them in the microwave in 30-second intervals. Mix ni between each interval. Alternatively, you can also melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie.
- Mix the chocolate with the pecans and reserve. They need to be at room temperature when we use them.
Assembly
- Pour the chocolate and pecans to one side of the dough. You should form a long rectangle. Make sure to leave 3-4cm (about an inch) of uncovered edge so that we can fold it inwards. Paint with butter the areas of dough that's not covered with filling.
- Fold the edges towards the filling. Use the kitchen cloths or tablecloth (depending on what you're using) to roll the strudel. Watch the video for further reference :). Finally roll it onto a baking tray with baking paper with the seams underneath.
- Brush the strudel with some of the extra butter and it goes into a preheated oven at 180C / 350F for about 30min or until evenly golden. Halfway through take it out and brush it with more butter. If you see that the top is becoming golden faster than the rest of the strudel, you can put tin foil on top to prevent it from over-caramelizing.
- Before garnishing the strudel, you need to let it cool down completely so the icing sugar doesn't melt. Dust with icing sugar and then make chocolate lines on top. Finish with chopped pecans and extra icing sugar.
2 comments
Thanks for the recipe. Very similar to my Hungarian father’s recipe which I am trying to recreate. DO have a filling recipe with apricot, or ricotta cheese? My dad also had an almost -like marzipan – filling.
Never tried it but sounds delicious! I’ll investigate <3