Apple and Pear Mousse with Granola

Today I prepared for you a recipe for an apple and pear mousse which, combined with granola, will be great as a snack or for breakfast. The mousse on its own is not only good as a dessert, you can also add it to many other meals. You must try it with porridge, waffles or pancakes, and you will see for yourself how much flavour it gives to your meals.

Preparation

The mousse: Core the apples and pears, peel them and cook them. Then blend all the ingredients until smooth.

Granola: I combined all the ingredients thoroughly, then transferred the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. I baked it for 20-30 minutes at 160°C (320°F), stirring it three times during baking. At the end I added the dried fruit and desiccated coconut, and put the granola into a bowl when it was ready.

Cook the fruit with barely any water

Apples and pears are mostly water and they release it as soon as they meet heat, so a pan with a splash in the bottom is enough to stop them catching before their own juice comes out. Add a cup of water and you will be boiling the mousse down for twenty minutes to get the thickness back.

Ten minutes under a lid is usually enough for 160 g of fruit cut into pieces. They are ready when a fork goes through without resistance, and going further only costs you the fresh taste. Pears vary far more than apples: a ripe one may need five minutes, a hard one fifteen.

Blend the fruit warm, add the powders cold

The mousse blends smoothest while the fruit is still warm, when the flesh is soft and gives way easily. The maca and the Lio Shake are a different matter: both are fine powders that clump on contact with hot fruit and then stay as specks no matter how long the blender runs.

Let the fruit cool for a few minutes before they go in, or blend the fruit first and stir the powders into the cooled mousse. Maca in particular is strong and slightly malty, so a tablespoon against 160 g of fruit is noticeable rather than subtle. If you cannot find the Raspberry Lio Shake, a spoonful of freeze-dried raspberry powder or a handful of fresh raspberries blended in does the same job for colour and tartness.

160 degrees is low on purpose

Granola is nuts, seeds and oats in oil and honey, and all four burn easily. At 160 degrees they dry out and colour slowly, which is what makes granola crisp rather than toasted on the outside and soft inside. A hotter oven gives you dark edges and raw middles in half the time.

Stirring three times is not optional either, because the tray bakes unevenly and the edges are always ahead of the centre. Take it out when it is light golden and still slightly soft: granola crisps as it cools, and a tray that looks done in the oven is overdone on the plate.

The dried fruit and coconut go in after baking

Both would burn in twenty minutes at 160 degrees, which is why the recipe adds them at the end. Desiccated coconut in particular goes from white to bitter brown in a couple of minutes.

The raisins or cranberries are soaked beforehand for 20 to 30 minutes, and they should be drained and patted dry before they meet the warm granola, or the moisture they carry softens everything you just spent half an hour crisping.

Keeping them apart

Store the granola and the mousse separately, and combine them in the bowl. Granola loses its crunch within minutes in contact with anything wet, which is the whole reason this is two recipes rather than one.

The granola keeps two weeks in a sealed jar at room temperature, as long as it cooled completely before going in, since a warm jar means condensation. The mousse keeps four days in the fridge and freezes in portions. If you would rather have breakfasts and snacks like these planned into the week with a shopping list, that is what the Diet & Training by Ann app does.

Anna Lewandowska

Apple and pear mousse with granola

A blended mousse of cooked apples and pears with maca and raspberry powder, served with home-baked granola of oats, seeds and nuts.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Servings: 3 servings

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Polish

Calories: 390

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Mousse

• 80 g apples
• 80 g pears
• 1 tablespoon Raspberry Lio Shake
• 1 tablespoon maca

Granola (circa 3 portions)

• 1 cup gluten-free oat flakes
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup hazelnuts
• 1/3 cup almonds
• 2 tablespoons honey
• a pinch of cinnamon
• a pinch of cayenne pepper
• a pinch of turmeric
• a pinch of cardamom
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries soak beforehand in hot water for about 20-30 minutes

Method

 

1. Core and peel the apples and pears and cook them with barely any water, covered, for about 10 minutes until a fork goes through easily.
   
2. Let the fruit cool for a few minutes, then blend it with the maca and the Raspberry Lio Shake until smooth.
   
3. Combine the oat flakes, coconut oil, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, almonds, honey and spices thoroughly.
   
4. Spread the mixture on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 160 C (320 F) for 20-30 minutes, stirring three times.
   
5. Take the granola out while it is light golden and still slightly soft, and stir in the drained dried fruit and the desiccated coconut.
   
6. Let the granola cool completely, and serve it with the mousse, combining the two in the bowl.
   

Notes

Ingredient quantities are taken from the recipe box as published. Raspberry Lio Shake can be replaced with freeze-dried raspberry powder or fresh raspberries. Calories are an estimate.

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