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Apple Charlotte
Cut bread into slices 1/4 inch thick; then into strips 1 1/2 inches wide, and as long as the height of mold to be used; cut 1 piece to fit top of mold, then divide it into 5 or 6 pieces. Crisco mold; dip slices of bread in melted Crisco, and arrange them on bottom and around sides of mold, fitting closely together or overlapping. Fill center entirely full with apple sauce made of tart apples stewed until tender, seasoned with Crisco and sugar. A little apricot jam can be put in center if desired; chopped almonds also may be added. Cover top with bread, and bake in hot oven 30 minutes. The bread should be an amber color like toast. Turn it carefully on to flat dish. Serve with any sauce that you like.
A classic apple charlotte, written for a company that wanted you to reach for its tin of shortening at every step. The technique is sound; only the fat and the oven language need translating.
- The hinge: a very thick apple fillingAnything loose will steam the bread lining into mush and collapse when turned out. Stew the tart apples down until they hold a spoon upright, then cook off more moisture over low heat if in doubt.
- "Hot oven"Conventionally somewhere in the 400-450F range; the recipe itself gives no temperature. The point is to crisp and brown the bread lining quickly rather than to cook the filling, which is already done.
- CriscoCrisco is hydrogenated vegetable shortening, and this book was published to promote it. Melted butter gives better flavour and browns to the "amber color like toast" more readily; use it for greasing the mold, dipping the bread and enriching the apples.
- The moldA traditional charlotte mold is a plain-sided tin, slightly flared so the charlotte releases; capacities vary, from roughly a pint and a half up to a couple of quarts. A straight-sided souffle dish or small deep cake tin works; avoid anything with a decorative pattern.
- The breadA firm white sandwich loaf, a day old, cut without crusts. Fresh soft bread soaks up fat and tears; very open artisan loaves leak filling through the holes.
- Lining without gapsOverlap the strips deliberately and press the seams. Every gap is a place for the apple to escape while it bakes, and the escaped juice is what glues the charlotte to the mold.
- Turning outA short rest of about 10 minutes before inverting helps: too hot and it slumps, too cold and it sticks. Run a thin knife round the edge first.
- Yield and servingA quart-sized mold will probably serve about 4 to 6. Custard sauce, thin cream or a warmed apricot glaze are usual accompaniments; the optional apricot jam in the centre suggests the author had that pairing in mind.
Apple charlotte is generally traced to late eighteenth-century England, and the name is often said to honour Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, though the connection is traditional rather than documented. It should not be confused with the later charlotte russe, a cold moulded cream lined with sponge fingers, credited to the chef Antonin Carême; the older charlotte is a hot dish whose whole character comes from bread fried crisp in fat around a dense fruit interior, a thrifty way to use stale loaf and windfall apples. Its appearance here, with Crisco written into every stage, marks it as a product cookbook: A Calendar of Dinners was issued by Procter & Gamble to persuade American cooks that a new vegetable shortening could stand in for butter and lard in the whole established repertoire, dessert included.