Grandma Plavac's Pineapple-cheese strudel

Filling

• 1

  Drain pineapple and save juice in bowl.

• 2

  Combine and mix cream cheese, ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, yolks and whole egg, lemon peel and vanilla. Beat with mixer.

• 3

  Lastly, stir in pineapple.

Filo Dough

• 1

  To defrost, leave the unopened package in the refrigerator overnight and the filo will be ready to use the next day. Do not thaw at room temperature because the sheets then have a tendency to stick to each other.

• 2

  One of the difficulties of working with filo is that it tends to dry out very quickly once exposed to air. Thus speed is of the essence. Before unrolling the filo, make sure that you have a large area to work on and that all your ingredients and utensils are at hand. Specifically, make sure you have a feather or pastry brush and the melted, but not browned butter that will be used to top each individual sheet. If you are going to bake the filo pastry immediately, your oven should be preheated.

• 3

  Melt butter in pan and keep ready for use on filo dough.

• 4

  USING FILO DOUGH: Open box, filo dough divided into two sections. Box contains about 21 leaves. Start with using seven leaves, brushing each with melted butter. You need to work quickly with filo; it crumbles quickly when exposed to air, dries out easily.

• 5

  Keep unused portion rolled and covered. The used section is unrolled to expose the leaves. Put damp paper towel on top of leaves. As you use one, put damp towel back on top of next one. You will have a separate bowl for butter only, if you find you are running out than melt more.

• 6

  Use a feather or other pastry brush to spread an ample amount of butter on the sheet or part of the sheet you are working on, beginning at the edges and working inward. Use broad strokes and work fast to prevent the sheets from drying out. The object is not to saturate the sheet, but lightly dab it all over.

Assembly

• 1

  You are now ready to put it together. You have a bowl with the cheese mixture, a bowl with the melted butter and your filo leaves.

• 2

  Grease the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Put down your first layer of seven sheets; layer them one by one buttering each. Don’t worry if they crumble, the butter will glue everything together.

• 3

  After you have layered the first section of the filo leaves, spread half of the pineapple/cheese mixture on top of the leaves. Fold the leaf ends over and butter.

• 4

  Open up second section and start with the next seven leaves, buttering each leaf. Spread the rest of the pineapple/cheese mixture on top of the seven and again fold the ends over and butter.

• 5

  The remaining seven leaves will be the top of the strudel. Butter and layer.

• 6

  Finally, use a sharp knife and cut into diamond shapes, halfway through.

Bake

• 1

  Preheat oven to 350°

• 2

  BAKE at 350° for 50 minutes or until golden brown. When it hits the last 10 minutes, pour melted butter on top of the strudel. It will seep into the slits you made with the diamond shape cutting.

• 3

  Cut the diamonds through. Serve warm by itself or with ice cream. Can serve cold or at room temperature.

Other Options

• 1

  With a few changes this recipe will make BAKLAVA. Everything is the same except for the topping. Instead of butter poured into the slits you will make a syrup; Combine 1/2 cup sugar, pineapple juice and lemon juice. Cook to mix. When Baklava is baked, spoon hot syrup over hot baklava. Cool and cut the diamonds through.

• 2

  Another option is instead of cheese change it to apple strudel. Again, everything is the same except you omit the cheese and use apples.Peel 3 lbs of apples, cut thinly. Put in a bowl, sprinkle 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cornstarch and 1 tsp cinnamon on top of thin cut apple slices. Squeeze apples to remove some of the juice before you place on the filo. Again, spilt this mixture in half. Once on the filo sprinkle 1/4 cup bread crumbs to help absorb juice of apples.