Easy Fresh Peach Strudel with Phyllo Dough

1 box phyllo (filo) dough sheets, from grocery
¾ cup ground pecans or walnuts
4 large or 8 small fresh peaches, sliced and chopped
½ lemon, juiced
½ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 stick European butter, salted

Thaw dough, keep in box, overnight in refrigerator. Do not remove from box and plastic wrapper until ready to work with it—very fragile. As soon as dough gets dry, it becomes too brittle to work with. Peel, slice, and cut peaches into bite-sized pieces. Grind nuts finely. Add lemon juice, sugar, spices, and flour to peaches and mix together well. Slowly melt butter on low in microwave, being careful not to overheat.

Open dough, remove from plastic, count and remove 8 full sheets. Place, fully opened sheets on a very soft cloth towel and roll carefully, covering all surfaces of dough so that it will not dry in the air. Place the remainder of dough back in refrigerator. A box of phyllo will make 2-3 strudels.

Remove two sheets at a time from the towel and cover the remaining sheets. Lay the two sheets out on a parchment paper, plastic or cloth pastry board. Take a brush and work a small amount of melted butter over the top of the first two sheets, taking care to cover the edges of the pastry to keep moist. Sprinkle some of the nuts over ¾ of the surface of the top sheet. Repeat, two sheets at a time, until all 8 sheets are stacked with butter and nuts between four layers. Then pour peach mixture into center of the top layer of last pair of phyllo sheets, fanning the peaches out until the entire center of dough is covered, leaving about 2-3 inches all around with no filling. Fold the left and right ends of dough over the pastry; then roll the pastry jelly-roll style until a strudel shape is formed. Work very quickly. The dough gets soggy and brittle. Don’t worry, if it feels as though it’s falling apart, it will bake up nicely. Transfer to a metal baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Look at the dough after 30 minutes, if has already become very brown, ‘tent’ the strudel by laying a piece of aluminum foil over top surface to reduce browning. Allow to cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm.