ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's the season of baking and enjoying family.

If family is maybe a little extra, we’ve got a low-stress dessert recipe – so you can eat something delightful even if the company isn’t.

And It starts in Largo at Frida’s.

Frida’s Café and Bakery serves up European delicacies.

So of course a stopover for holiday dessert ideas yielded a classic European dish--the German Apple Strudel Recipe.

German Apple Strudel 

Apple filling 

6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 of a lemon’s juice 

1 cup of water

Dough

6 to 8 sheets of filo dough

½ stick of butter 

1 egg

1-2 tablespoons water

Powdered sugar to garnish

Cooking

Sheet pan and parchment paper

Brush

Directions

Add all dry ingredients together and mix it thoroughly in a pot and slowly add water and lemon juice.

Stir to avoid lumps.

Heat up close to 180 degrees and it’s done. (Boiling is 212 degrees at sea level -- to give you context)

Combine with apple slices.

Lay the filo dough sheets one at a time on a cookie sheet pan – Frida’s uses parchment paper on theirs.

Spread the melted butter with a pastry brush in between layers. (It doesn’t have to be perfect- Filo dough is super duper thin – it’s basically a strudel dream. Instead rolling out dough to the edge of see through and folding, you have these ready-made sheets of paper-thin dough. But because it’s so thin, it will dry out quickly, and that is why you have to either work quickly or keep it covered.)

Put the apple filling down the middle avoiding the edges.

Cover the filling by folding the sides over like you are folding a sheet of paper into three sections to put in a legal envelope.

Beat your egg and add water or substitute milk for the egg wash. Use the egg wash as a sort of glue to fold in and close down the edges.

Spread over the strudel for a golden brown and shiny finish. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle powdered sugar for garnish.