What country is listed as apple strudel's place of origin?

Austria is listed as apple strudel’s country of origin.

Apple strudel is especially associated with Vienna and Austrian cuisine, where it became a celebrated pastry. Its German name is Apfelstrudel, and the dessert consists of apples, sugar, cinnamon, and often raisins and breadcrumbs wrapped in thin, elastic dough.

The history is more international than the country label suggests. Strudel became popular across the Habsburg Empire, and its layered pastry is commonly linked to older Ottoman pastries such as baklava. Hungarian culinary tradition also played an important role, and apple strudel has close relatives throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

The oldest known strudel recipe is a handwritten 1696 recipe preserved in Vienna. That date does not mean the modern apple version suddenly appeared that year; it shows that strudel-making was already documented in the region. Austria is therefore the standard answer for the listed origin, while Hungary, the Czech lands, Slovakia, and other neighboring areas remain important parts of the pastry’s cultural history.