Poppyseed Cranberry Strudel

There is so much I want to write about~! I started this blog because well, I was inspired by several food bloggers out there and being out of school for a few years now, I felt my writing was declining. One of my very first blogs I started following was Smitten Kitchen (check it out, Deb's awesome--> www.smittenkitchen.com) . A girl at work introduced me to it 2 years ago and I've been following it since. So I have 2 years of backlogged recipes that I haven't shared with people!! WHERE TO START!?! My initial post to this blog was a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. I already had it typed up and posted on my facebook so it was easy enough to copy and paste over~! I just wanted to see what it would look like once I published a post! I would like to share with you one of the things that I tried before I even really got into baking, I had just recently gotten the Food Network and turned on the TV one random afternoon to find Anna Olson`s show: Sugar. They were doing a segment on Cranberries. This was one of the recipes featured in that segment~! Being a baking noob at the time, if I could it, you can do it~! :D

Poppyseed Cranberry Strudel

Poppyseed Filling
-3/4 cup poppyseeds
-4Tbsps sugar
-1/3cup 2% milk
-1Tbsp unsalted butter
-1/2tsp vanilla extract

Strudel
-2 1/2cups fresh or frozen cranberries
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/4 cup honey
-1tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
-10 x sheets phyllo pastry
-1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
-poppy seeds for sprinkling

Directions
1. Filling: Grind poppyseeds and sugar in a food processor. Removed and scrape into a small sauce pot. Stir in milk and simmer, stirring often, until milk is absorbed. Stir in butter and vanilla and set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 375F. Toss cranberries with sugar, honey, vanilla and cinnamon. Spread out one sheet of phyllo pastry and brush lightly with butter. Lay another sheet of phyllo on top and brush with butter. Continue layering and brushing phyllo sheets until all are used. Spread cooled poppyseed filling along one long edge of the pastry and spoon cranberry filling over poppyseeds. Starting with the filled side, roll up phyllo pastry to cover filling. Tuck in outside edges of pastry to seal in fruit (like folding a wrap) and continue rolling. Place strudel, seam-side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush top of strudel with butter and sprinkle with poppyseeds. Bake for 20-25 min, until pastry is rich golden brown. Cool for 15 min before slicing/serving

*best served warm or at room temperature