- [Announcer] This episode
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you with a therapist to see if it can help you. - It's Gretchen Wiener's. - She's totally rich because her dad invented Toaster Strudel. - I don't think my father, the inventor of Toaster Strudel would be
too pleased to hear about this. Regardless, I don't think
your grandfather, the inventor of Toaster Strudel would be too pleased to hear you using that tone with me. - Hey, what's up guys? Welcome
back to Binging with Babish, where this week I'm using its
mere mention in mean girls as an excuse to make my favorite
breakfast from childhood Toaster Strudels. Also, fun fact, this guy
right here, that's Eddie Lou, a very talented actor,
one of my closest friends and my roommate from college. Anyway, let's get down to the business of toasting our strudels. Starting of course with the
stuff from the freezer aisle, I'm following the package
recommendations, toasting one to two cycles on a load to medium setting grabbing
while still a little too hot from my delicate human fingers and decorating with a
flourish of loose runny icing. But the way I did it when I
was a kid was to microwave it for 30 seconds, sending it
instead through the toaster oven, which at least in my adolescent mind, made them come out flakier and toastier. And these are every bit as delicious as I remember them being. So to justify a homemade
version, we're gonna have to make them pretty damn good. Let's start with the most obvious move. Some store-bought puff pastry thawed and rolled out per package instructions and cut into Toaster
Strudel-sized rectangles. Then fulfilling the easiest candidate is some store-bought blueberry jam, applying an excessively reasonable strip in the center of each rectangle,
brushing down the edges with a beaten egg and slowly draping another rectangle of dough over top to minimize air pockets,
press firmly to adhere, and then we're gonna move things over to a parchment paper
line, brim baking sheet and crimp very securely with
a fork trimming off the edges to neaten things up and
to reemphasize the seal. Then these guys are headed into the fridge for about 30 minutes before baking. As with virtually any
pastry, we want things to be as cold as possible. Then we're brushing down their exteriors with that beaten egg. And because I'm pretty sure
these are gonna explode as a test, I'm gonna
punch some little vents in two of these pastries. We got a lot of liquidy filling and when it gets hot, it's
gonna want somewhere to go. After about 15 minutes in a preheated 375 degree Fahrenheit oven, two of them exploded,
one vented, one unvented. So the fault lies in the
security of my crimps. Remember kids, crimp with
conviction once cooled, but still warm or frosting
with a simple mixture of powdered sugar and heavy cream. And these are perfectly delicious, but they're more strudel
than Toaster Strudel. They've got big cavernous
pockets of air between each layer and there's nothing convenient
or grab and go about them, and most importantly, they certainly wouldn't fit in a toaster. So before we get into
form factor, let's start with some homemade fillings. I got three honey crisp apples here. You can use any good baking apple. Then you can peel core and shop, or you can just shred
it on the large holes of the box grader. We want a nice fine texture so you're not pulling
out slices of apples. With every bite we're cooking these apples in about a tablespoon of melted
butter, along with a juice of one lemon, two ounces
of dark brown sugar and one and a half ounces of honey
for our sweetness, letting that cook together for about five minutes before adding two ounces of
finely chopped candied ginger. Then for additional flavor bonus points, I'm gonna add a little splash of whiskey plus a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt, half teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and three quarters of a teaspoon
of ground cardamon letting that cook for anywhere
from 10 to 30 minutes until the apples are nice and soft and most of the liquid has evaporated, a less juicy filling is
gonna help prevent blowouts. Next up, I'm gonna make a
strawberry basil filling. First, blanching a half dozen basil leaves for about 10 seconds before
dumping in an ice bath. Then combining 14 ounces of
finely chopped strawberries, our blanched basil, finely chopped, the juice of one lemon, two and a half ounces of granulated sugar and a quarter teaspoon of
kosher salt, bringing it up to a simmer and cooking for
15 to 20 minutes until nice and thick and jammy. Now this filling is considerably gooier than the apple stuff, so I'm
going to lightly strain it, pressing about a half
cups worth of the liquids through a fine mesh sieve, reserving for delicious use later on. Last up, my personal favorite, blueberry. I'm going with 10 ounces
of frozen wild blueberries because they're nice and small. Two and a half ounces of granulated sugar, the requisite juice of one lemon. And to class things up a
little, I'm gonna add two ounces of finely chopped dried
apricots, plus a quarter teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of
sumac bring up to a simmer and cooking for anywhere
from 10 to 20 minutes until things get thick and almost pasty a perfect
filling for our strudel. Now under the pastry,
I'm gonna start with two and three quarter ounces of
all-purpose flour in the bowl of stand mixer, adding a
half teaspoon of kosher salt and one tablespoon of
granulated sugar whisking until combined and then
cubing up 12 ounces or three sticks of cold unsalted butter. Luckily, as we learned from the
movie, butter is not a carb. Add that to the flour, a
fixed paddle attachment, and run the mixer on medium
low speed for about two minutes until the butter is broken
up into pieces about the size of large blueberries. If you don't have a stand
mixer, you could also do this by breaking up the butter
between your fingers. Now we're gonna add six and a half ounces of sour cream mixing on low
speed for about one minute until a shaggy dough forms
turning it out onto a countertop. Adding a little bit more
flour feels too wet, adjusting the focus so
the audience can see what you're doing and
gently folding together until no dry patches remain, this cheaters puff pastry isn't going to puff up as much as the real stuff. So I think it's gonna be more viable as a Toaster Strudel wrapped
tightly in plastic wrap and fridge for 30 minutes to one hour lightly
flour your work surface. And now to make the pastry flaky, we must engage in the time
honored tradition of lamination. That is we're gonna roll the dough out to a roughly 8 by 12 inch rectangle and fold it into thirds
like a pamphlet rotating at 90 degrees and repeating
the process two more times. You should end up with a
more cohesive, workable piece of dough that is positively
stacked with layers of butter wrap and fridge
for another 30 minutes before rolling out and baking. I'm gonna divide this in
half for easier workability. You'll look closely. You can see a little flex of butter layered throughout
the strata of the pastry. Now to roll it out and impress
some dimples into the dough, that should make it more
workable and prevent cracking and try to get it down to about
an eighth of an inch thick. This dough is fighting me a little, so I'm gonna place it in the
fridge for about 15 minutes, allowing the gluten to relax and making things a little more pliable. Don't go any longer than 15 minutes, otherwise you're gonna be fighting hard butter instead of gluten. Now, just like last time, I'm cutting off the edges
into a neat rectangle and using ruler to evenly divide
it into six sub rectangles, enough to make three
pastries, one with each of our bespoke fillings. You can make these larger or smaller depending on your preference
and general dexterity. Same procedure as before. Brush down the edges with egg
yolk crimp with conviction and trim off the edges back
into the fridge for 30 minutes. Then once nice and chilled, brush down thoroughly with beaten and egg. Then these guys are headed and do a preheated 400 degree Fahrenheit
oven for 20 to 25 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Now if you ask me and you're asking me, those are some homemade Toaster Strudels. Let them cool in the pan
for about 10 minutes before. Oh my God, I forgot the frosting. General procedure here is
just to add heavy cream to powdered sugar until you get a nice drizzle bowl frosting. But now I'm gonna make various flavors for our various fillings. For the apple and add a
teaspoon of vanilla paste and about a quarter butter
knife's worth of cinnamon for a vanilla cinnamon frosting, so good, you won't be able to
stop dipping your pinky in it. Now, when the movie came out,
they made Toaster Strudels with special edition pink frosting. To imitate that we're simply
combining our strawberry runoff and powdered sugar. For the blueberry, I'm
going with powdered sugar and lemon juice colored with
a little bit of food coloring to make it well blue. Frost as appropriate
per the pastry filling. And there you have it the way
Toaster Strudels always looked in my mind's eye. Golden brown pastry and a picture perfect
squiggle of frosting. But how did they taste and function? Let's take a look at a cross section here. I was worried that I made
the filling too thick, but it was just right, nice
and gooey without flowing out or exploding out the side of the pastry, and it was almost flakier
than the puff pastry dough, more like pie dough than puff. And while the apple and
strawberry were delicious, my favorite remains as
in childhood blueberry. But the fact is that these
are not Toaster Strudels until they can be made in a toaster. So I made another batch this time, baking for about five minutes less
until puffed and blonde, but not golden, allowing to cool completely and then freezing. Now because of the thickness, my adolescent microwave
method actually works best. Nuking for 30 seconds before
toasting until golden brown. As you can see, it came out a little dark. I think that's because I initially over baked him in the oven. I also think they would help to omit the egg wash if you plan on freezing and reheating these. So there you have, it are three iterations of Toaster Strudel. The store-bought original remains
near and dear to my heart, but at the time of this recording, there are still some left in the freezer. Meanwhile, the crew and I ate every single one of the homemade ones. So I think that qualifies these for a clean plate club equivalency. Thank you again. To better help for
sponsoring this episode. Go to the link in the video description to get 10% off your first month. That link is betterhelp.com/babish. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
