Apple Mousse Crumble Tartlets
A smooth apple mousse, glazed with an apple cider jelly, sitting on an apple compote in a delicious pastry shell, and topped with a crunchy crumble - it's Fall in a dessert! This is a lightly modified version of Will Torrent's apple crumble and custard tartlets, adjusted to simplify and clarify the process.
Equipment
- 1 round biscuit cutter (9-10cm, 3.5-4inch)
- 1 standard 12-muffin pan
- 1 baking sheet
- 1 cake pop silicone mold Mine is here: https://amzn.to/4dGY2gK
- 1 food processor
Ingredients
Pastry Dough
- 200g (1 2/3 cup) all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnnamon
- 100g (6 1/2 Tbsp) unsalted butter, diced and chilled
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 30g (2 1/2 Tbsp) confectioner's sugar
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
Crumble
- 50g (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) all purpose flour
- 50g (1/2 cup) ground almonds *I used blanched almond flour
- 50g (1/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 50g (3 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, diced and chilled
Apple Mousse
- 2 tart apples, peeled, cored, and chopped *Granny Smith
- 3 crisp eating apples *e.g., Crimson crisp, pink lady, etc.
- 3 tbsp caster or granulated sugar + more to taste
- 25g (1 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 sheets platinum grade leaf gelatin The ones I use are here: https://amzn.to/4827YAf
- 2 egg yolks
- 150ml (2/3 cup) double or heavy cream
Apple Glaze
- 5 sheets platinum grade leaf gelatin The ones I use are here: https://amzn.to/4827YAf
- 300ml 1 1/4 cups apple juice, apple cider, or mulled cider
Instructions
Pastry Dough
- At least 1 hour ahead of baking (I like to make this the day before), add your flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter to a food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks like wet sand.
- Add the confectioner's sugar and mix to combine. Add the beaten egg, and pulse until the dough starts to come together.
- Pour your dough out onto a work surface and use your hands to bring it together into a ball. Flatten it into a disc, cover in saran wrap, and chill in the fridge at least 1 hour, until firm.
Prepare Pastry Shells
- Roll out your pastry dough on a lightly floured work surface, to a thickness of 1/16inch (2mm). I like to use the rolling pin linked above to simplify the measurement for thin pastry doughs.
- Using the cookie cutter, cut out 12 discs (you will have extra pastry).
- Press each pastry disc into one of the muffin pan holes, and prick the bases with a fork. Arrange your muffin pan on a baking sheet and chill in the fridge 20 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 170° C (325° F).
- On top of each pastry disc in the muffin pan, line the pastry with parchment, and fill with baking beans to prevent the pastry from bubbling up.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes until pale golden and starting to crisp.
- Remove the baking beans, and bake 1-2 more minutes to finish drying out the bases. Remove to cool, and leave the oven on.
Prepare the Crumble
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add all the crumble ingredients into the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the butter has rubbed in and the mixture begins to form small clumps.
- Tip the mixture onto the baking sheet, and bake in the still hot oven for about 10 minutes, tossing partway to make sure it bakes evenly, until golden and crisp. Set aside to cool.
Prepare the Apple Mousses
- Spray your silicone cake pop molds with oil (I use coconut oil spray).
- Add the apple, sugar, butter, lemon juice, and cinnamon into a saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking (lower the heat if necessary). Taste and add sugar if necessary (I added about 2 tbsp since my apples were on the tart side).
- Remove from heat, and set aside about 1/3 of the compote.
- Pass the remaining 2/3 through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl.
- Set the gelatin leaves to soak in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes until soft.
- Meanwhile, add a bit of the hot apple puree into a bowl and mix like mad to temper your egg yolks without cooking them. Add that mixture into the rest of the apple puree, mixing the entire time to ensure they don't cook.
- While the puree is still hot, strain your gelatin leaves, and add them to the puree (reheat your puree if necessary), whisking until everything is thoroughly combined. Set aside to cool, then chill for 30 minutes to thicken slightly.
- Meanwhile, whip your cream until just firm (just before soft peaks form). Fold your cream into the chilled puree to form a mousse. Spoon into a piping bag, and pipe into the silicone molds (in a pinch, you can use ziploc bags to pipe, and just snip the corners off).
- Cover your molds and pop in the freezer at least 45 minutes, or up until you are ready to glaze and assemble.
Make the glaze
- Soften the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat half the apple juice in a small saucepan until just before boiling. Drain the gelatin leaves, drop them into the hot apple juice and whisk in until melted.
- Add the cold apple juice and mix to combine.
- Chill in the fridge until starting to thicken. This can be anywhere from 15-25 minutes, depending on your fridge and saucepan. It is important that the glaze be starting to thicken, but not too thick, before glazing.
- Turn your frozen mousse domes onto a clean sheet of baking parchment. Carefully spoon the cold jelly to coat in an even thin layer (the cold mousse will cause the jelly to thicken further once they touch) Tip: Don't worry, you can scrape the jelly off and try this process again if it doesn't work out on your first try!
- Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Assemble Tartlets
- Divide the apple compote between your pastry shells. Carefully life one jelly-glazed mousse onto each tart, and scatter the crumble around the edges.
- Enjoy!