Apple Strudel Fruit Spread from Alpe Pragas, cinnamon and vanilla
The Apple Strudel Fruit Spread from Alpe Pragas brings the strudel filling into a jar, made from finely sliced apples, sultanas, cinnamon, and real vanilla bean. It spreads soft and golden brown on bread, with little raisins inside that always give the spoon something to do.
Apple Strudel Fruit Spread is the strudel variety from Alpe Pragas in the Braies Valley of South Tyrol, featuring 75 percent fruit in a 335-gram jar. Apples make up the entire fruit content, complemented by sultanas, cinnamon, vanilla, a splash of lemon juice, and pectin from the apple.
Golden brown, warm, like fresh strudel
Upon opening, the scent of baked apple, cinnamon, and vanilla rises, just as it would from a bakery.
On bread, you first taste the apple, clear and slightly tart, then the warmth of the cinnamon settles over it, followed by the rounding notes of vanilla. The sultanas sit inside as soft, sweet dots, adding variety to every spoonful.
The texture is soft and chunky, golden brown to amber in color, with visible pieces of apple. The lemon juice keeps the color bright and ensures the spread stays fresh rather than becoming caramelized.
Sultanas, cinnamon, and the whole vanilla bean
Three ingredients turn an apple spread into a strudel, and all three are authentic here.
Sultanas are the dried berries of the pale Sultana grape—seedless, lighter, and softer than ordinary raisins—and they soak up apple juice as they are cooked down. The cinnamon is added ground, and the vanilla as a split pod with the seeds.
Alpe Pragas works without artificial flavorings, which is most noticeable in the vanilla. It tastes more delicate and floral than the usual "store-bought" aroma, and it leaves little black specks in the jar.
Only as much sugar is added as is necessary for gelling, since the sultanas provide their own sweetness. It is thickened with pectin from the apple, meaning the spread requires no external binders and yet remains easy to spread.
The strudel filling, from the oven into the jar
The apple strudel belongs to South Tyrol and Austria just as much as the mountains themselves, and its filling is always the same.
Sliced apples, raisins, sugar, and cinnamon are placed on thinly stretched dough, along with breadcrumbs to absorb the juices. This is exactly the filling found in this jar, just without the surrounding dough.
The advantage is obvious: a strudel needs to be baked and eaten on the same day. The spread, however, waits on the shelf until breakfast calls for it, and it tastes just as good in July as it does in November.
On bread, in puff pastry, over rice pudding
The apple strudel has its place every day on fresh white bread with butter, in muesli, or over pancakes.
Spread it onto rolled-out puff pastry, roll it up, and bake it for a good twenty minutes at a high heat, and you have a quick strudel on the table. Spooned over warm rice pudding or semolina porridge, it becomes a dessert, or stirred into quark, it creates a cream.
It also pairs well with savory dishes, such as alongside aged mountain cheese or fried black pudding, where the sweetness and spice provide a good balance. For Kaiserschmarrn, Alpe Pragas offers this as an alternative to the traditional applesauce.
If you prefer more spice, try the Winter Dream with rum and cloves; the entire selection can be found among the Alpe Pragas fruit spreads.
