This terrific vegan apple strudel has a golden, crisp puff pastry crust wrapped around a deliciously gooey filling of apples, raisins and pecans. You will look like a genius when you serve dessert and no one needs to know how easy it was to make!
Table of Contents
Easy vegan apple strudel recipe
Who doesn't love apple strudel? This layered Austrian pastry, which they call apfelstrudel, is stuffed with cinnamon-spiced apples, raisins and nuts and it is delicious enough to dig into any time of year. But it is especially alluring in fall when apples are in season and the oven is working overtime for the holidays.
Desi loves apple-stuffed pastries like vegan apple pie and French apple tart. A crisp apple strudel is definitely one of his favorite things, so I created this recipe just for him. However, making an authentic strudel crust seemed time-consuming, not to mention difficult: you need to make a dough with flour and butter, stretch it or roll it out so it's paper-thin, and then layer it before you can add the filling, braid the dough and bake the strudel. All very good if you have half a day to spare, which I don't - and neither, I'm guessing, do you. So I made the process much simpler by using glorious puff pastry. That way we could have our vegan apple strudel, make it in record time, and eat it too!
Store-bought puff pastry is often vegan, and it's a nice substitute for traditional strudel dough because it gives you that layered, crispy, golden effect without any effort at all, like in this vegan pot pie. Just get the thawed puff pastry dough out of the packet and use a rolling pin to make it a little larger before adding a simple but tasty apple-pie like filling. Roll up the dough, make slits at the top of the pastry to let steam escape, and you - and your guests - will be digging into a blue-ribbon-worthy dessert in no time at all! If you'd like this dessert to be even healthier, you can also try making your own whole wheat and vegan puff pastry.
This recipe makes two 10-inch apple strudels, which is great if you're feeding a crowd. Or eat one now and freeze one for later.
Recipe card
Vegan Apple Strudel
Ingredients
- 4 apples (thinly sliced to about ¼th inch thickness)
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup pecans
- 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup unbleached all purpose flour
- Juice of ½ small lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
- 2 sheets puff pastry (I used Pepperidge Farm puff pastry)
Optional "egg" wash
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
Instructions
Make apple strudel filling
- Place the apples in a bowl. Add the sugar, salt, raisins, pecans, cinnamon, flour and lemon juice.
- Mix and set aside for 15 minutes.
Make the optional "egg" wash
- Mix the olive oil, milk and maple syrup in a small bowl. Set aside.
Assemble the vegan apple strudel
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/190 degrees Celsius.
- Roll out one puff pastry sheet so it's 12 inches wide and 16 inches long. Place half the apple filling along the bottom edge of the puff pastry, leaving a one-and-a-half inch border on all sides. It will look like a lot of filling but don't worry - the apples will bake down. Fold the edges over the filling.
- Roll the puff pastry into a log. Place it on the baking sheet seam side down. Repeat with the other piece of puff pastry and remaining filling.
- Cut vents in the top of the strudel logs to let the steam released by the apples escape during baking.
- Place the strudel logs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper is added insurance in case any juices escape from the strudel during baking and stick to the pan. Brush the optional "egg" wash on the apple strudel logs. Bake the apple strudel 45 minutes until the puff pastry is flaky and golden.
- Remove the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the strudel stand an hour. Dust the logs with powdered sugar before eating.
Nutrition Information
To print recipe card without images, uncheck "instruction images" after clicking the "print recipe" button.
Vegan apple strudel FAQs
Use any variety of tart, firm apples that will hold their shape during baking. This includes all apples you'd use to bake an apple pie, including Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp and Pink Lady apples.
Thaw frozen puff pastry for 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature or four hours in the refrigerator.
Pepperidge Farm, the brand sold at my local Giant and Safeway stores, is accidentally vegan, as are the 365 brand puff pastry at Whole Foods, Jus-Rol at Harris Teeter and Schar, a brand sold in some Safeway stores (but not at mine).
Most store bought puff pastry brands include undesirable ingredients like palm oil and corn syrup, so if you can spare the time it's a great idea to make your own puff pastry crust at home using my recipe for whole wheat puff pastry. You can also make the puff pastry with all-purpose flour.
You can make this strudel gluten-free by using gluten-free puff pastry. Schar's has a gluten-free puff pastry dough that is also vegan and would work perfectly for this strudel. Use gluten-free all purpose flour for the apple filling.
Absolutely. Stack 10 sheets of phyllo pastry, brushing each sheet with oil or vegan butter as you layer, the way you would if you were making vegan baklava. Place the filling on one side, fold the sides over the filling, and roll it all up. Make cuts in the top and bake 35 minutes in an oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/190 degrees Celsius.
Yes, you can assemble the strudel and refrigerate it for up to two days before baking. Or refrigerate the baked strudel for up to four days or freeze for up to four months. Reheat in a 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius oven until the crust is crispy again.
The strudel crust can become soggy because the apples express their juices during baking. To keep this from happening, the strudel crust is lined with toasted breadcrumbs. For my easy recipe I mix some all-purpose flour into the apples, just as you would for apple pie. The flour absorbs the excess juices and makes the filling thick and gooey without making the crust soggy.
Apple strudel is traditionally served dusted with powdered sugar. You can also serve it with vegan whipped cream or vegan vanilla ice cream.
michele martin says
I made the recipe today using the exact ingredients and following the exact directions. It came out perfectly delicious and was really quick and easy to make. I normally would have peeled the apples, but I left the peel on as in the photos and discovered I like it better with the peel. Thanks for an excellent recipe!
Vaishali Honawar says
Hi Michele, so happy you loved the strudel. Agreed on not peeling apples - I rarely do!
George says
Thanks for this lovely and very easy recipe. It would be nice to have a measurement for sliced apples, as i used apples culled from a wild tree that were quite small and in some cases only half was edible. Four of these apples would have rendered a couple of mouthfuls haha
Vaishali Honawar says
Hi George, I will remember this for the next time. So happy you enjoyed the strudel.