I created this dessert from just several techniques that I fell in love with, and wanting to compose those techniques into a cohesive dessert. Homemade phyllo is always something I love to do, while the usage of Almond Inspiration was just to add a pleasant nuttiness. I wanted to use hojicha as well, since it adds a toasty flavor that balances the Almond Inspiration nicely – think milk tea with almond cookies, that’s the flavor combination tastes like! Since it’s the fall, I went ahead with using apples, since they add a nice tartness that balance out the other flavors, and what better to pair with apples than gjetost cheese? For those unfamiliar, gjetost cheese is a Norwegian cheese made from slowly caramelized goat’s milk, so it’s similar to Oaxacan cajeta or dulce de leche!

For the components, we have homemade brown butter phyllo, an Almond Inspiration and hojicha cream, a green apple puree, gjetost fonduta(melted cheese sauce), and a hojicha sugar. The dessert is plated in a way to resemble an apple that has been sliced into thin pieces, hence the name, “Feathered Apple”. The slices of phyllo are sandwiching the apple puree, while that delicious gjetost fonduta just adds pleasant caramel notes, similar to the caramel dip that you would have with apples at a McDonald’s. Overall, this dessert is like eating a caramel apple, apple pie, and an overcooked tarte tatin(whoops), all in one!

For the homemade phyllo:
1 cup all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt
½ cup water
6 tbsp brown butter

Mix flour, salt, and water to form your phyllo. Divide into 4 pieces. Roll each piece out and generously brush 3 pieces with brown butter. Stack and roll out into a thin sheet. Transfer to a lined sheet tray. Cut out 1-inch disks. Brush with more brown butter on top and place on another baking sheet and sheet tray. Bake at 400 degrees F for 12 minutes. Cool before using.

For the Almond Inspiration cream:
½ cup heavy cream
1 tspn gelatin powder + 1 tablespoon cold water
1 oz Almond Inspiration
1 tspn hojicha powder
A pinch of salt

Melt half of the heavy cream with everything else. Pass through a sieve and pour onto a sheet tray to cool down to room temperature. Mix into that the rest of the heavy cream to bring down the temperature faster. Pour into a foaming gun and load it. Foam the cream and refrigerate until time to serve.

For the green apple puree:
2 green apples, peeled and cored
¼ cup water
1 tspn yuzu juice
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp brown butter
¼ tspn xanthan gum

Puree everything together. Cool down and pour into a piping bag for plating.

For the gjetost fonduta:
1 oz gjetost cheese
1 tbsp brown butter
A pinch of salt
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tbsp brown sugar

Reduce to form a sauce. Cool down the sauce so that it’s not too warm.

For the hojicha sugar:
¼ cup turbinado sugar
2 tspn hojicha powder
A pinch of salt

Puree into a fine powder.