Caramelized Apple & Goat Cheese Mousse Mille Feuilles
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.
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.
- 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.
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!
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.
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.
If you’re hosting a dinner party, this is simple yet sophisticated, and it’s sure to impress!
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
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:
- 1 batch puff pastry
For the Caramelized Apples:
- 4 Granny Smith apples
- 1/2 cup (110 g) light brown sugar,, loosely packed
- 1/4 cup (56.75 g) unsalted butter
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- powdered sugar , (for garnish)
- salted caramel sauce, (for garnish)
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.
Allie!!!!! This recipe just made my heart cry with happiness! It looks like something that I would see in a food magazine !!!! It looks sooooooo elegant and professional!!!! And the flavor combination!!!!!!!!!!! The goats cheese mousse sounds soooo heavenly! I’m simply LOVING everythingggggg about this mille feuille!! Yum Yum YUM!!!!! 🙂
Allie, this is GENIUS! I love the flavor profile and combination of textures going on in this dessert. You made me smile while reading your post…I could totally imagine you in a frenzy while baking, dirtying up bowls and whisks, taking pictures, editing them, writing the recipe/post….AHHH!!! This all sounds way too familiar 😉
Gosh darn it, Allie, when are you going to open your patisserie? You know I will be the first in line 🙂
I LOVE how you made goat cheese mousse. It`s very creative! And, gah, mille feuilles…how I wish I could taste these right now. Hehe.
Thank you, Lynna! The mousse was so quick and easy. It’s just no bake cheesecake with a little goat cheese subbed in. Simple! But a little fancier than the usual. I’m so happy you liked it; thanks so much for the sweet comment 🙂
OMG!!!! This is absolutely fabulous! I’ve had a mild…well crazy obsession with Goat Cheese but I’ve never actually had it as a mousse! I can’t try it! The mystery dish is a super fun concept!
Isn’t it though? I love it… it’s such a fun challenge. Goat is my favorite too, I love how creamy and tangy it is, and how you can make it sweet or savory. I had made a goat cheese cheesecake (sweet) a while back and I loved it! It was an Ann Burrell recipe from Food Network, if you feel like looking it up. Anyway, it was fabulous, so I had that in my mind when I saw the Mystery Dish ingredients for this month. This recipe was basically a no-bake cheesecake with goat instead of/in addition to cream cheese. I loved how it came out and it tasted so good with those buttery apples! I’m so happy you liked it too! Thanks so much for reading and for the sweet comment. Hope you’re having a great week! 😉
Wow, Allie! This is my kind of dessert. I love caramelized apples and can’t get enough of goat cheese. What a fabulous dessert and a beautiful dish!
Thanks Ashley! I love pretty much anything caramelized, and goat is probably my favorite cheese ever. I really liked how the flavors combined on this one. It’s different for sure! I’m so happy you liked it too~ Thanks so much for the sweet comment! 🙂
Oh wow, you’re so talented! This couldn’t look any more sophisticated, I tell you. And I love all the flavors in this and the presentation is so cool as well! You always come up with such original scrumptious desserts, Allie!
Have a lovely week (and good luck with the dishes, those are definitely not fun!) :-*
You are such a sweetie, Consuelo! Well I wish I could take credit for originality on this one, but really, Helene takes the prize! I just used her idea + the Mystery Dish ingredients. I hope you have a lovely week as well! xoxo
FYI: this is not a dessert that looks like it sneaked up on you. Seems more cool-as-a-cucumber than harried-as-a-mad-hare. So clearly you’re pulling off this whole deadlines thing well. Even with a 9 recipe post coming up. Because these look DE-licious!
Aw, shucks! Thanks so much, Dani! I was lucky to have inspiration strike at just the right moment (love when that happens!). And now I’m officially DONE with all the deadlines, so I’m looking forward to a much less stressful month. Thanks for stopping over and for the sweet compliment. Happy Thanksgiving!
Seriously Allie! I don’t know how you do it? 1: Eat all your delicious dessert and not gain anything! 2: create the most beautiful and elegant dishes…. you are so stinking creative. I love the honey goat cheese cognac mouse! I can’t wait to try this! Pinning! 🙂
Ummm, I don’t know about the not gaining anything part… lol! That is an ongoing struggle 😉 Thank you so much for the sweet and encouraging comment, and thanks for pinning too! Ps- I love how the inLinkz thing came out~ so clean and simple. You’re a rockstar! Hope you have a great holiday weekend <3
Absolutely girl, I speak the truth! Glad you liked the new layout!
Oh my goodness those look absolutely amazing! Thanks for sharing, I will definitely be trying these 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Hey Eric! I’m so happy you liked the post! They were pretty quick and simple to throw together. I hope you enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving, and happy blogging to you too 😉