Fresh plum and ricotta strudel

Written by Catherine Saxelby on Tuesday, 23 June 2009.
Tagged: bake, bread, dessert, moderate

Ready In: 1 hour 5 minutes
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes (mostly unattended)
Serves: 6

Plums and other blue-red fruit such as cherries, blueberries and cranberries, are rich in a particular type of antioxidant known as anthocyanins. Here's a lighter, lesser-fat version of this lovely strudel - using plums instead of apples.

Ingredients

1 ½ tablespoons soft margarine or oil
½ cup fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs (3 slices)
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
125 g ricotta
250 g fresh plums (about 6) or 425 g can plums, drained well
6 sheets filo pastry
TO SERVE:
Vanilla ice-cream or custard

Nutrition per serve

760 kilojoules (180 Calories), 4 g fat (including 2 g saturated fat), 30 g carbohydrate (including 16 g sugars), 3 g fibre and 215 mg sodium. Read our nutrition rating system.

Directions

1. Melt margarine in saucepan. Add breadcrumbs and sugar, reserving 2 teaspoons. Cook over a moderate heat for 15 minutes. Stir well to break up any lumps. Remove from heat. Stir in cinnamon. Allow to cool.

2. Halve plums, removing stones and slice thinly.

3. Lay two sheets of filo pastry on top of one another, spraying the upper most sheet with oil or soft margarine. Sprinkle with one-third of the crumb mixture and top with two more sheets. Spray top layer with oil and add another one-third of the crumb mixture. Top with remaining two sheets and sprinkle with final one-third of the crumbs.

4. Spread ricotta along edge of pastry. Arrange plums on top of ricotta. Sprinkle with the reserved 2 teaspoons of sugar. Roll up pastry as for a swiss roll, tucking in the edges.

5. Transfer to a lightly oiled baking tray. Spray top with oil. Bake in a moderately-hot oven 190°C for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to moderate 180°C and bake a further 20 minutes until crisp and brown. Take care not to burn the filo.