My sister has an annoying habit of saying that she can't cook. What she actually means is that she prefers someone else to take on the day-to-day cooking. Despite this feigned disinterest in cooking she is always on the lookout for recipes with a wow factor to impress her friends, so when it comes to entertaining, which she does often, she always has something special up her sleeve.

Most of the time, though, she relies on a tried-and-tested repertoire that she has been cooking for years. One such favourite is apple strudel with almond ice cream. She likes the fact that both recipes can be made up to 48 hours in advance. The strudel, she reckons, actually improves after a day or so in the fridge.

At the cookery course she attended before she got married — see what I mean? — everything was made from scratch, including rolling a large sheet of tissue-thin strudel pastry. Cheating with filo, which is what a lot of cooks do, is not an option.

The pastry is undeniably the tricky bit of making this roly-poly apple pie, but it’s a revelation how a small lump of pastry can be cajoled beyond the size of a tea towel. The occasional tear doesn’t matter a jot, because it's likely to be hidden in the roll later.

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• Apple strudel

• Almond praline ice cream

Any apple, eater or cooker, is suitable for apple strudel, but green-skinned, crisp and dry, slightly tart eaters such as Granny Smith or Golden Delicious, are particularly well suited to it. The peeled and sliced apples are strewn over the sheet of pastry with buttery, fried breadcrumbs and golden sultanas to soak up the apple juices. Lemon zest and finely chopped toasted almonds, cinnamon and demerara sugar add extra interest and depth of flavour and they all sing out with the apples and pastry as the strudel bakes in the oven.

The pastry will have been carefully rolled into a plump, ungainly sausage, the ends sealed and the surface glazed with butter. It is usually curled into a horseshoe shape to fit neatly on to a baking sheet and will be baked until crisp and golden.

The strudel can be served immediately or left for up to 48 hours before it’s brought up to room temperature and then given a 15-minute blast in a hot oven to warm it through and recrisp the outer pastry. While it cooks, the apple and pastry merge against each other and end up deliciously light and gooey with an almondy apple flavour, but it's the sultanas and background hint of cinnamon that make the dish. Some recipes advise soaking the sultanas first in alcohol — rum or Calvados — but it really isn’t necessary.

Like all apple pies, apple strudel goes with cream, ice cream and custard. The cream could be whipped with icing sugar to make crème Chantilly, or with a little rum or Calvados. Decent shop-bought vanilla ice cream is a good, easy option, but why not take a leaf from my sister’s old recipe notes and have a go at almond ice cream? Based on meringue rather than custard, with home-made praline stirred into the mixture, it’s not the simplest of ice-cream recipes, but at least you won’t need an ice-cream maker.

Almond praline ice cream
Serves 8
Prep: 45 min plus 4 hours freezing
Cook: 15 min

Ingredients
For the praline:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
50g caster sugar
2 tbsp water
50g unblanched almonds
For the ice cream:
4 medium eggs
100g icing sugar
300g thick double cream

Method
Oil a tart tin or small roasting tin. Put the caster sugar and water in a pan and heat slowly, swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.

Add the almonds and cook quickly, stirring constantly, until the sugar turns a deep golden brown. Tip into the oiled tin and leave to set cold. Blitz in a blender or place in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.

To make the ice cream, separate the eggs. Beat the yolks until smooth. In the (spotlessly clean) bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk, or in a second bowl, whisk the whites until stiff. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Lightly whip the cream. While whisking constantly, add the icing sugar, a tablespoon at a time, to the meringue (egg whites). When incorporated, whisk the yolks and cream into the meringue.

Turn the mixture into a 1.5-litre plastic container. Cover and freeze for 2 hours. Turn the mixture into a bowl, whisk until smooth, then stir in the praline. Return to the freezer in a covered container. Remove from the freezer for 15 minutes or so before serving.

Apple strudel
Serves 8
Prep: 45 min plus 30 min resting (pastry) 45 min (filling)
Cook: 45 min

Ingredients
For the pastry:
250g strong white flour plus a little extra
½ tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 tbsp vegetable oil
75ml tepid water
For the filling:
75g butter
50g blanched almonds, preferably Marcona
75g white breadcrumbs
1 lemon
1kg green eating apples
100g sultanas
2 tsp ground cinnamon
75g demerara sugar
1 beaten egg
25g icing sugar

Method
Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Whisk the egg in a small bowl, add oil and water and mix thoroughly. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour the liquid into the middle gradually, beating flour and liquid together with a wooden spoon, continuing until it clumps together and is neither wet nor dry. This is a dodgy moment, as adding the liquid too quickly makes it lumpy. Work the dough, kneading and slapping it on to a work surface for about 10 minutes until smooth, shiny and obviously elastic. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm spot for at least 30 minutes to relax the pastry.

Now prepare the filling. Melt 15g butter in a frying pan and, when bubbling, stir in the almonds. Stir-fry until golden, then tip on to a fold of kitchen paper to cool. Wipe out the pan and add 35g butter. When melted, add the breadcrumbs and stir until crusty and golden. Tip on to kitchen paper to cool. Place the cooled almonds in a plastic bag and crush into crumbs with something heavy. Remove the zest from the lemon and chop finely. Squeeze the lemon juice into a mixing bowl. Quarter, core and peel the apples, then slice thinly down the halves directly into the lemon juice. Toss occasionally to prevent excessive browning.

Give the pastry another quick knead. Choose a clean tea towel with a strong pattern — I chose one covered with strawberries — and spread it out on a work surface. Dust the tea towel lavishly with flour, rubbing it into the fabric. Plonk the pastry in the middle. To begin with, as you roll and pull the pastry, your task — to roll it so thin that you can clearly see the tea-towel pattern and big enough to overhang the edges — will seem impossible. The pastry will resist and want to spring back on itself, but just keep on rolling, stretching it gently with your hands. As it gets larger, slip your hands under the pastry, carefully easing it off the tea towel, to gently stretch and pull the dough, using your forearms and later the backs of your hands to support it. It helps if you can roll the pastry on a work surface or table that enable you to get at the pastry from different angles, although you could just move the tea towel. Keep on until the pastry is tissue-thin and large enough just to overhang the tea towel. The odd tear is fine, but choose the end with the least damage to finish on. Trim the edges. If you haven't already, ease your hand under the pastry to ensure that none of it is stuck to the tea towel.

Melt the remaining 25g butter and paint it over the pastry. Leaving a 2cm border, scatter the pastry with chopped almonds and breadcrumbs. Drain the apples and mix with the sultanas, cinnamon, sugar and lemon zest. Spread evenly over the crumbs. Bearing in mind which end you wish to end on, roll the pastry with the aid of the tea towel. Use beaten egg to glue and seal the end of the roll and side ends, tucking the seal under the roll. Carefully manoeuvre the roll on to a buttered baking sheet lined with buttered baking parchment and ease it into a horseshoe shape. If you wish, you could keep the strudel on hold at this point. To cook, heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and bake for 20 minutes. Increase the oven to 200C/gas mark 6 and cook for a further 30 minutes until the surface is crisp and golden. Dust with icing sugar and ease onto a serving platter. Serve warm rather than piping hot, cut in slices.

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