Fruit Strudels

Once upon a time, at one of my family gatherings, no doubt during a holiday of some sort, my cousin had brought over this beautiful fruit strudel from the famous Han's and Harry's.  Of course, at the time, I had no idea who or what Han's and Harry's was.  I mean, I rarely head south of the 94 freeway, here in San Diego...and of course, Han's and Harry's is in Chula Vista area.  So, nope, sorry...never heard!  But after that first bite of delicious fruit strudelliness....I was hooked!  It was soooo good!  However, this strudel was one of those special orders, where you can't really walk in and purchase one.  My first thought, of course was that I'm going to make my own fruit strudel....as close to possible as Han's and Harry's!  I mean, how hard can it be right?  Strudels consists of some kind of puff pastry, pastry cream, and fruit.  Easy, peasy.  ... .... Uh, right...not quite so "easy, peasy."  The problem, I found, lies in the pastry cream.  The very first time I tried my hands at this, the pastry cream was way too thick and eggy.  Not quite creamy like Han's and Harry's.  Hmm...back to the drawing board.  Let me tell you...pastry cream isn't as easy as you think.  Especially when I'm trying to get that right texture and taste.   Suffice it to say, it took a really long time for me to finally come up with a pastry cream that I was happy enough with to compare to Han's and Harry's.  What do you think?

I'm loving the fruit on these fruit strudels.  In fact, fruit strudels, although a somewhat pain to make, really makes me happy.  All those different fruit colors really appeal to my eyes!  And add some glaze to it...LOVE!  Stay tuned for more!