Fruit Strudel

I needed a cake for last night and this evening, and the shops are shut. I am not a cake person, so it had to be something I could handle. I looked in the kitchen and found I had apples, plums and frozen filo pastry. So I decided to make a sort of strudel (stuffed dishes are popular on Sukkot - the Feast of the Tabernacles). I took the base recipe from a print-out I had for some years (I don't know from where, but it bears the name Lily Vieyra), adapted it and then looked up instructions for the Filo pastry part in my Evelyn Rose Jewish Cookbook. I removed most of the sugar, and I had to make it without any milk products, but it still worked, and turned out delicious.

Ingredients >  25 gm butter or margarine  >  1 large or 2 medium green apples >  Optional. 5 plums or apricots >  1/2 cup of sultanas (white raisins) >  1/2 cup chopped walnuts >  Light brown sugar to taste. I used 1 Tbsp, but the original recipe states 1/4 cup >  1/2 tsp ground cinnamon >  1/4 tsp nutmeg >  6 sheets of filo pastry, defrosted >  Oil or melted butter for the pastry >  1 egg, beaten Makes two strudels, each enough for 5 people. Serve with whatever you are allowed, such as cream or ice cream.

Steps 1.  Thaw the pastry. Note that this takes a few hours, so plan ahead. 2.  Peel the apples, core them and then chop them. 3. Remove the pits from any other fruit you are using, and chop these. 4.  Melt the butter (or marge) in a large frying pan, and add the chopped fruit and sultanas. 5.  Mix well and saute for a few minutes. 6.  Add the water, sugar, nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg. 7.  Mix well, reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the apples are tender but not overcooked. 8.  If there is too much liquid, cook for a few minutes more without the lid. 9.  Let the mixture cool. 10. Heat the oven to 200C 11. I have a silicone sheet, and this helped me with the pastry, but if you don't use a wet tea towel. 12. Open the filo pastry packet and carefully remove one sheet and place it on the silicone sheet or tea towel, long side facing you. Filo pastry dries out very quickly, so cover the remaining sheets with a wet tea towel. 13.Brush the sheet with melted butter (or oil). 14. Repeat the procedure for another 2 sheets. 15. Place half the filling on the bottom half of the sheet as it faces you. 16. Turn over both of the short sides of the pastry, and then carefully fold the pastry from you towards the top. This is where the tea towel comes in handy. 17. Line a baking tin with silicone paper and carefully place the strudel on it. Cover with a wet tea towel. 18. Repeat steps 11 to 16 for the other 3 sheets. 19. Brush the top and sides of each strudel with the beaten egg. 20. Cut diagonal slices into the top level of the pastry, until you reach the fruit. 21. Cover the 2 strudels with another sheet of silicone paper. 22. Put into the oven for 30-40 minutes. The pastry should be brown, and a knife inserted into one of the cuts should have no resistance from the fruit.