Adapted from the Austrian Tourist Board, this Viennese specialty can be made with strudel dough or puff pastry. The sliced apples are mixed with spices, raisins soaked in rum, ground hazelnut and buttered breadcrumbs to make the stuffing for the pastry which is then folded in and rolled up. When baked, the strudel sprinkled with icing sugar and served with some cream or ice cream.    

Underground, beneath the arched walls of the Schonbrunn Palace, the Imperial Bakery produces the best Viennese apfelstrudels. The recipe adapted from the official website of Café Landtmann, one of the oldest Viennese coffee houses, omits the use of hazelnuts and with extra sugar added the apple strudel gains on juiciness.

Published by Hotel Sacher, a Viennese gastronomical landmark, The New Sacher Cookbook by Alexandra Gurtler and Christoph Wagner is filled with recipes synonymous of Austrian cuisine, as well as the accompanying anecdotes from the hotel. The apfelstrudel regularly served at the hotel is made with very basic phyllo pastry — just flour, salt, water, and a tablespoon of oil. The filling is also a simple one; made with sweet apples, not tart ones, combined with breadcrumbs, raisins soaked in rum, and a pinch of cinnamon.

South Tyrol, an Italian province located in the northern Italy, blends successfully Alpine and Mediterranean influences in their cuisine. A part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War, the apfelstrudel of the region is made with pine nuts instead of hazelnuts. The recipe is adapted from the website of Apparthotel Sonnwies hotel.