Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Mousse

Happy birthday to me! I’m trying to be good with high calorie/rich desserts lately but I needed to make myself something delicious to celebrate my birthday on Friday. We still had a few apples left from apple picking and thought I could incorporate them into one last creative apple recipe. So, here you go – apple cinnamon mousse!

I bookmarked a recipe for lemon yogurt mousse from one of my favorite food blogs, Serious Eats, a while back. I used that as a loose guide but generally made up my own recipe to highlight this appley cinnamony goodness.

Apple Cinnamon Mousse

1 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
1 medium apple (I used McIntosh), peeled, cored, chopped
4 tsp. cinnamon (total – 2 for the applesauce, 2 for the yogurt mixture, and a sprinkle for garnish)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup water (not including water needed for applesauce)
1 envelope (about 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup sugar
4 egg whites
Pinch of salt

Make applesauce, per my prior instructions. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl mix the greek yogurt, 2 tsp. of cinnamon, and vanilla. Also set aside for a bit.

In another small bowl sprinkle gelatin over water. Don’t mix, it’s ok, it knows what to do. Again, set aside.

In a bowl that can be made into a double boiler (i.e. metal or glass), mix sugar, egg whites, and salt.

Get your double boiler going….

You want to whisk this mixture over the double boiler until it’s hot. If it looks like the egg whites are cooking/scrambling, take it off the heat. This process should only take 1-2 minutes.

Once off the heat, add your gelatin mixture. Beat this together until the bowl has cooled to the touch. This took me about 8-10 minutes (ow my wrists) – the egg whites were frothy and gelatin had started to tighten everything together.

Once cooled, you’re going to add in the yogurt mixture and the applesauce.

Whisk until everything is incorporated and smooth (about 1-2 minutes).

Next, pour your mousse into any small vessel to eat out of. I had two sundae cups and two small prep bowls. Fancy porcelain ramekins are on the wedding registry, I swear!!

Put these in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.

If you ever wanted to see how a food blogger lives, here’s the honest truth. Leftover City:

After 45 minutes in the fridge your mousse will be light, airy, cool, refreshing, and the perfect fall dessert (that isn’t apple pie/crumble/bread/muffins/carby/heavy/gutbusting).