At the beginning of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, the characters enjoy breakfast in an Icelandic village before traveling to Snäfell (a dormant volcano) to begin their descent into the Earth. Curious about what they may have eaten there, I started to research Icelandic breakfasts and discovered that skyr (high-protein yogurt) is a popular breakfast item. I’ve made homemade yogurt in the past, and I thought it would be fun to try a new variety. But what to pair it with?
I decided to do a breakfast-y baked apple topped with skyr and granola. Instead of baking the apples whole and stuffing them with filling, I decided to make them hasselback style, cutting them in half and cutting thin slices into the tops. This way, the toppings can slip between the slices, allowing each bite to be more balanced. I developed my own hasselback apple recipe loosely based on the baked apples in my cookbook, A LITERARY HOLIDAY COOKBOOK. The granola is a crunchy, pared-down version of the granola bars in my latest book, A LITERARY PICNIC. For the skyr, I started with a recipe by the Jules Food blog and tweaked it to suit my experience.
These apples turned out delicious! They have just the right balance of sweet, savory, soft, and crunchy. The best part is, even though they’re super healthy, they actually eat like a dessert. So you could have them for breakfast, a special treat, or both!