Apple Strudel with Cranberry Sauce

Finally and sadly the holidays have passed.  Tonight is a last hurrah, the grand finale.  We'll celebrate New Years with a beer and a midnight kiss before we crash into bed.  Then the long winter starts and five months later the sunshine begins.  I always have such mixed feelings about the start of the new year, anticipation and restlessness, and a sense of dread of the impending diet restrictions.  It's all fair though, since I have eaten without thought these last few weeks, and most definitely gained a few pounds.  It's time to clean up our diets and focus on getting back to health (and not carrying those pounds into bathing suit season).

This strudel served us well at our last Christmas dinner.  I thought the strudel needed to be baked just before it was eaten to keep it crispy, but the recipe said to let it cool completely before serving, so I baked it several hours before it was served.  Unfortunately I was right and the crust did not stay crisp, the layers were soft and soggy, totally disappointing.  The apples seemed a tad under baked and the phyllo layers a little over baked.  The cranberry sauce however was perfectly awesome.  It had a wonderful fruity light flavour that was both sweet and tart enough.

Baking notes:
-I left out the raisins, and added only 1 Tbsp of kirsch to the apple filling.
-I baked the strudel for 25 minutes total, covering it with tinfoil after 15 minutes.
-As you can see I forgot/didn't cover the dessert with powdered sugar.

The recipe for Apple Strudel with Cranberry Sauce can be found on the epicurious website.

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