Apple Strudel vs Apple Pie: What's the Difference?

The dough is the whole difference

Strudel dough is a soft, elastic mix of flour, egg, oil, salt and vinegar-spiked water. The Austrian Embassy's recipe rests it about 30 minutes, then has you pull it from the middle outward over a floured cloth with the backs of your hands until it is paper thin. Our Wiener Apfelstrudel follows that method.

Pie crust is built the other way. King Arthur Baking's apple pie works shortening and cold butter into flour, binds it with ice water, and rolls it into rounds that line and cover a pan. Where strudel wraps a tissue-thin dough around the filling, pie wants a crust sturdy enough to hold a bubbling filling.

What goes inside

Both are mostly apples. Austria's national tourist office fills its strudel with about 3.3 pounds of sliced apples tossed with lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and cloves, plus raisins soaked in rum. Underneath sits a layer of breadcrumbs fried in butter with ground hazelnuts. A Caterer masterclass says the crumbs soak up the apple juices so the pastry does not turn soggy.

Pie skips the crumbs and thickens the juices instead. King Arthur tosses the apples with flour and cornstarch so the filling sets as it cools. Our classic American apple pie uses eight cups of thin slices with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice under two crusts, while our English apple pie has only a top lid.

How they are shaped and baked

Strudel is spread with filling, folded in at the sides and rolled into a log with the seam underneath. It is brushed with butter and baked about 40 to 50 minutes at 350°F (180°C) (356°F), then dusted with powdered sugar and eaten warm or cold. Austria's tourist office also allows store-bought strudel dough or puff pastry.

Pie is built inside a dish. King Arthur starts it at 425°F for 20 minutes, drops to 375°F for about 40 more, and bakes until the filling bubbles through the vents. It says to cool the pie completely before slicing, or the filling runs. The Dutch appeltaart, pie's tall cousin, presses a brown sugar dough into a springform pan and tops it with a lattice, according to America's Test Kitchen.

Where each one comes from

Strudel is tied to Vienna, where it is a coffee-hour pastry, and to Hungary, where apple strudel is called almásrétes. Austria's tourist office says the pastry traveled from Arabia through the Ottoman Empire before settling in Vienna, and Wikipedia says its roots are believed to lie in Hungarian rétes. Treat the exact birthplace as unsettled.

Pie is English. The oldest apple pie recipe usually cited, from a manuscript dated 1381, bakes apples, figs, raisins, pears and saffron in a pastry case, with no sugar. Historian Gabriella Petrick writes in Smithsonian that colonists carried the pie tradition from England and that crusts turned lighter and flakier because lard was more plentiful. Our Is apple pie really American? tells the rest.

Which one to bake

Strudel rewards patience and a big table. Pie rewards a cold kitchen and a good vent. Decide for yourself, then cast your vote in our apple pie vs apple strudel debate.

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