I realized recently that I haven’t shared a recipe for pumpkin strudel. It is something that is baked this time of year in all the corners of Romania, usually for New Year’s Eve celebrations. The recipe my mother makes is different from this one, but the taste is quite similar. This one is easier to make because the pumpkin is cooked on the hob and folding the strudel takes less. I might share my mother’s recipe at some time in the future.
The recipe, like most of my dessert recipes, has a low quantity of sugar and lots and lots of fruit. With the ingredients I shared you can make two rolls like the one in the picture. That means there area around 10 servings, meaning a portion counts 1 towards the 5-a-day and it has only 8g of added sugar, that is less than a spoon of sugar.
Ingredients for Pumpkin strudel:
– 1 pack of Filo pastry
– 800g pumpkin (flesh only)
– 80g sugar
– 50ml oil + for oiling the pastry
– 2 tsp cinnamon
– 100g walnuts
– icing sugar to decorate
Start by grating the pumpkin using a big grater. Put the pumpkin in a pan, add the sugar, and the oil and stir. Leave on the hob at medium heat, stirring from time to time until the pumpkin is cooked. When the pumpkin is cooked, add the walnuts chopped in small pieces and the cinnamon and stir to incorporate. Leave the pumpkin on the side for it to cool down. It should have the consistency of a paste.
While the filling is cooling down, pre-heat the oven at 180C or 160C for fan ovens. Roll out half of the filo pastry, put a bit of oil on the pastry. Make a roll with half of the pumpkin paste and put it in the middle. Wrap it in the filo pastry and put it on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Do the same with the remaining pastry and pumpkin filling. Brush some oil on top of the strudels.
Put the strudel in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Take the baking tray out of the oven and leave the pumpkin strudel to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. After that, put a bit of icing sugar in a strainer and shake it over the strudel to coat it with sugar.
Do you eat pumpkin strudel in the winter and around Christmas time?
Oh how tasty! Lovely flavours of pumpkin with spice and walnuts. Does it make difference which pumpkin you use, could I use a butternut squash?
I think it works with butternut squash too. I used pumpkin from the ethnic shop, so it was like the ones I knew from childhood.
That looks so flaky and GOOD! The pumpkin walnut filling is the killer!
I’ve never seen or tasted this, but it looks delicious! Would you believe I’ve never used fresh pumpkin before (gasp!), only canned?
And I don’t think I’ve used canned pumpkin before. :)) With canned pumpkin is even easier to make strudel or anything else, so why not.