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Breakfast Strudel




Source of Recipe


Cuisine at Home Magazine


Recipe Introduction


This is a really impressive looking and tasting pastry. It would be perfect for breakfast or brunch. You can assemble it ahead of time, if you like - up to the night before. The orange juice is added to help preserve the color of the eggs. The recipe makes 2 strudels, each of which should serve 6 - 8. I don't care for peppers, so I just left them out - the texture and consistancy didn't suffer at all. I think that the directions for doing the braiding are a little confusing - I just did my best and after the puff pastry puffs up and gets all golden it looks gorgeous.



List of Ingredients




1 box (1.1 lb.) puff pastry sheets, thawed
2 T. sweet butter
1 c. frozen cubed hash brown potatoes
1 c. red or green bell peppers, seeded and diced
1/2 c. onion, diced
1 c. smoked ham, diced
11 eggs
2 T. minced fresh chives
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 T. orange juice
1 egg
1 T. water
2 T. Parmesan cheese, shredded


Recipe



Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and saute until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the pepper and onion; saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. Then add ham and saute until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.

Whisk the eggs and chives together. Lower the heat on the pan to medium and add the egg mixture to the pan. Scramble until just set. They should still be soft and moist. Remove from heat and add the orange juice and cream cheese in little bits and stir until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate the egg mixture while working with the pastry.

Unfold a pastry sheet on a floured wooden board. Roll out to 12"x10" and transfer to a piece of parchment paper the same size as a baking sheet. [This is where I think the directions get a little confusing; what you want is flaps on the end to fold over the egg filling so that it won't ooze out and then a crisscross of flaps of dough from either side coming over the egg filling so that it forms a 'braid'.] Cut off top corners of pastry and then cut a notch in the bottom to create end flaps. Spoon half the egg mixture down the middle of the pastry [covering about 1/3 of the pastry] and cut strips on both sides of the dough at about a 45 degree angle. Fold up the flaps at the end and then crisscross the strips over the egg mixture [I used the egg wash from below to 'glue' the strips at the center - the recipe didn't call for this, but better safe than sorry]. Repeat with the other pastry sheet and the remaining egg mixture. Using the parchment paper, transfer the strudles to baking sheets.

Mix the remaining egg and the 1 T. water together. Brush over the strudels and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before slicing.

Serves 12 - 16.