It’s not German week at Aldi, but I found some treats imported from Germany during my most recent Aldi shopping trip: apple and cherry strudel with mascarpone cheese filling. There is something nice about sitting down on a fall evening with a cup of tea and a flaky baked pastry dessert like strudel. I picked up one of each flavor to try at home.
This strudel is sold under the Specially Selected brand, which is not a company. Instead, Specially Selected is the private label Aldi uses for various gourmet foods such as fruit blossoms, brioche loaves, German luxury cakes, and more.
Specially Selected Premium Apple Mascarpone Strudel and Specially Selected Premium Cherry Mascarpone Strudel are Aldi Finds at the time of publication. That means they’re only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back at some later time. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products that are not currently in stock at your local store. When these are in stock, you’ll find them in the Aldi Find freezer aisle.
Specially Selected Premium Apple Mascarpone Strudel and Specially Selected Premium Cherry Mascarpone Strudel cost $3.99 for a 21.2-ounce package at the time of publication. With six servings per package, that comes out to about 67 cents per serving.
The packages describe these as traditional German flaked puff pastry with apple or cherry and mascarpone cheese filling.
If you’re looking out for allergens, both the apple and the cherry strudel contain milk and wheat (gluten). They both may contain tree nuts, soy, and egg.
The first ingredient in these is either apples or morello cherries. They also contain mascarpone cream cheese and low fat “soft cheese.” They do contain a small number of processed ingredients such as xanthan gum and natural flavor.
Also, I’m not a big fan of raisins, but the apple mascarpone strudel includes raisins, which I didn’t realize until after I bought it and looked more closely at the fine print in the ingredients list. However, neither my family nor I could really tell there are raisins in it.
Both of these strudel flavors do have some calories, saturated fat, carbs, and added sugars, but they’re a pastry dessert and not something to eat every day.
The apple mascarpone strudel has 260 calories per serving, along with 12 grams of total fat (16% DV), 7 grams of saturated fat (35% DV), 100 mg of sodium (4% DV), 34 grams of total carbohydrates (12% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (5% DV), 17 grams of total sugars, 12 grams of added sugars (23% DV), and 4 grams of protein.
The cherry mascarpone strudel has 270 calories per serving, along with 13 grams of total fat (16% DV), 7 grams of saturated fat (35% DV), 100 mg of sodium (4% DV), 36 grams of total carbohydrates (13% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (5% DV), 17 grams of total sugars, 13 grams of added sugars (25% DV), and 4 grams of protein.
Nutrition information and ingredients. Apple at top, cherry at bottom. (Click to enlarge.)
The boxes have baking instructions. Keep these frozen until you’re ready to bake them. Then, preheat the oven to 425 degrees (conventional oven) or 400 degrees (convection oven). Remove the product from all packaging. Place the frozen strudel on a foil-lined baking tray in the center of the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes (conventional oven) or 25-35 minutes (convection oven) or until golden brown. Let the strudel cool before serving. The package does not recommend microwaving.
Strudel after baking. Apple on the left and cherry on the right.
When I removed the frozen strudel from their boxes, I noticed they looked almost like they were scored in the middle, like you could break them in half to portion them out. When I tried to break the cherry strudel in half along that mark that looked like scoring, though, it wasn’t the cleanest break, so I left the apple strudel intact while baking. They’re easy enough to slice into portions with a knife after they’ve baked.
A little bit of filling oozes out of the ends of these while they are baking, so you’ll be better off baking these on a rimmed baking sheet to prevent spills and messes.
Mine were done baking after about 30 minutes. Keep a close eye on these while they’re baking; I’ve learned from experience when baking other strudel that the edges of the pastry can quickly go from just right to overbaked. I was happy with how these turned out.
Cross sections of cherry on the left, apple on the right.
These were very good, and very filling. My family happily ate these up for dessert on a crisp fall evening. The strudel is plenty to eat on its own, but you could also serve these with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
These are sprinkled with a bit of coarse sugar on top, and the pastry is flaky, lightly crisp on the edges, and soft and doughy closer to the center. These have just the right amount of filling with plenty of fruit and sauce. My husband and I liked both the apple and cherry flavors equally. The kids liked the apple one the best. The mascarpone cheese adds extra flavor to the filling, and it tastes almost like frosting.
These are large enough to feed a family, but you could also bake one of these, cut it into single servings, and then freeze those servings to eat later.
This strudel is good enough I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it again.
The Verdict:
Specially Selected Premium Apple Mascarpone Strudel and Specially Selected Premium Cherry Mascarpone Strudel are imported from Germany and feature flaky pastry with fruit and mascarpone filling. These bake up perfectly in the oven and make a perfect snack or dessert.
These are so good it’s almost sinful. Even better at half price from an inner city Aldi in a few weeks.