This clegant dessert couldn’t be more simple to prepare!  An airy honeyed goat cheese mousse is spiked with cognac, blanketed with buttery caramelized apples, and sandwiched between flaky-crisp layers of puff pastry.

Caramelized Apple & Goat Cheese Mousse Mille Feuilles | Baking a Moment

Mystery Dish!

I feel like every month it sneaks up on me.  Ok, so maybe it didn’t sneak up on me, so much as I just wasn’t ready for it!  I mean, I knew it was coming but I just didn’t have the time to prepare for it like I would have liked.

Lately my life has been feeling like one big deadline.  This wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have this uncontrollable compulsion to over-complicate everything!  I just can’t seem to help myself.  I get an idea and then it just snowballs.  I get carried away!  It’s all fun and games and I love it, until it comes to the actual execution of it all.  Getting out the flour and sugar, preheating the oven, dirtying up 3 bowls and a fistful of whisks, setting up my backdrops and props, taking a zillion photos and then editing them, writing, uploading, and then cleaning up the inevitable mess….

I realize I have absolutely no right to complain here.  For one thing, I’m doing what I love (we should all be so lucky, right?).  And for another, it’s my own fault.  Nobody’s holding a gun to my head!

Somebody just smack me, please?!?

After just wrapping up a monster post (coming soon!) featuring three cupcake recipes, each with it’s own filling and topping (so three recipes within each of the three recipes; yes, I can math, that’s NINE recipes in one post), I really just wanted to come up with something relatively easy for Mystery Dish November.

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Our ingredients this month were:

  • Lamb
  • Apple
  • Butternut Squash
  • Puff Pastry
  • Frosted Flakes
  • Goat Cheese
  • Fresh Rosemary
  • Cherry Pie Filling
  • Spinach
  • Coriander

…and we were tasked to use at least three.

Caramelized Apple & Goat Cheese Mousse Mille Feuilles | Baking a Moment

This dish looks so fancy, but really, it’s very simple to make.  Were it not for my current state of mind, you can bet I would have tackled homemade puff pastry for this.

Maybe someday, but certainly not today, friends!

If you can find all-butter puff pastry in your local supermarket, definitely snatch that bad boy up.  Unfortunately, I could not.  I ended up with Pepperidge Farm, which works very well but does contain vegetable shortening (aka trans-fats).  I can only imagine that an all-butter version would probably taste amazing.

I pretty much knew from the beginning that I’d be doing some sort of a napoleon-type dessert, but it wasn’t until I stumbled across this that I had a clear direction.  Those Cranberry Walnut Macarons I made for Zainab were featured here, alongside one of Helene of Tartelette ‘s desserts (an unbelievably huge honor to even be mentioned in the same sentence), and the second I laid eyes on it I felt my burden  lighten.  Helene’s presentation is perfect (as always), so simple, and could be easily reworked to incorporate the Mystery Dish ingredients.  Thank you Helene!  You are an inspiration to me in so many ways, but especially today!

And the best part is, she has included a recipe for “rough” puff pastry in her post, which sounds quite doable and actually, very similar to my Simply Perfect Pie Crust!  I’ve linked to her recipe within the recipe card below.  I hope you’ll try it!

You’ll want to caramelize the apples in a relatively hot pan.  This way, they get a nice brown crust (so flavorful!) but don’t completely turn to mush.  I chose to forgo the typical apple + cinnamon pairing, in favor of a more French “tarte Tatin” -type flavor profile.  It’s not overly sweet, and I really like how it lets the apple flavor shine.

Caramelized Apple & Goat Cheese Mousse Mille Feuilles | Baking a Moment

It complements the goat cheese in the mousse filling so beautifully.  You’re going to love the sticky, intensely caramelized tart apple against the tangy richness of the cheese, and the cognac makes it so grown-up 😉

This very elegant looking dessert is deceptively easy to prepare.  The puff pastry and mousse can be made several hours ahead, and then you can just saute up the apples and plate the dessert in mere moments.

Caramelized Apple & Goat Cheese Mousse Mille Feuilles | Baking a Moment

If you’re hosting a dinner party, this is simple yet sophisticated, and it’s sure to impress!

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Be sure to check out all the other Mystery Dish posts from the group this month:

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Caramelized Apple & Goat Cheese Mousse Mille Feuilles

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
This elegant dessert couldn't be more simple to prepare! An airy honeyed goat cheese mousse is spiked with cognac, blanketed with buttery caramelized apples, and sandwiched between flaky-crisp layers of puff pastry.

Ingredients

For the Goat Cheese Mousse:

  • 1 cup (236.59 ml) heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup (59.15 ml) honey,, divided
  • 3 ounces (85.05 g) goat cheese,, softened
  • 2 ounces (56.7 g) cream cheese,, softened
  • 2 teaspoons cognac
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

For the Pastry:

For the Caramelized Apples:

Instructions
 

Make the Goat Cheese Mousse:

  • Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks.
  • Add half the honey; continue to whip until the cream holds stiff peaks.
  • Add the cheeses, remaining honey, cognac, and vanilla, and whip on high speed until very fluffy.
  • Refrigerate.

Bake the Pastry:

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  • Roll the puff pastry to a thickness of ⅛ inch, and cut into (8) equal rectangles.
  • Place on a lined baking sheet,dock the dough with the tines of a fork, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.

Cook the Apples:

  • Peel, quarter, and core the apples, and cut each quarter into (3) equal wedges.
  • Heat the butter in a large skillet and add the apples, brown sugar and salt.
  • Cook over high heat until the apples are caramelized on the bottom, stir, and continue to cook until slightly softened and caramelized on all sides.

Assemle:

  • Drizzle caramel sauce on a plate. Top with one rectangle of pastry.
  • Pipe goat cheese mousse over the surface, in a decorative pattern.
  • Spoon caramelized apples over the mousse, top with another pastry sheet, and dust with powdered sugar.
Calories: 685kcal, Carbohydrates: 72g, Protein: 7g, Fat: 43g, Saturated Fat: 27g, Cholesterol: 137mg, Sodium: 595mg, Potassium: 307mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 64g, Vitamin A: 1737IU, Vitamin C: 9mg, Calcium: 119mg, Iron: 1mg
Cuisine: French
Course: Dessert
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