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Charlotte Russe Elegante
One half package Cox's gelatine soaked in a very little water, until thoroughly dissolved, then whip one quart of cream very stiff, flavor and sweeten to taste. Line a mould with sponge cake, mix well the gelatine into the cream and pour into the mould previously lined with the cake.
A gelatine-set charlotte russe with no custard and no raw egg, so the only real difficulty is getting the gelatine into cold whipped cream without it seizing into threads. Read the note on that first.
- The hinge: temper the gelatineSoftened gelatine has to be warmed until fully liquid, then cooled to barely warm before it goes into the cream. Poured in hot it deflates the whip; poured in cool it sets on contact and leaves rubbery strings. Trickle it in while beating on low, and work fast.
- "One half package Cox's gelatine"What a Cox's package held is not recoverable here, so this quantity is genuinely uncertain. A modern envelope is 1/4 oz (7 g) and sets about two cups of liquid; for a quart of cream whipped to double volume, two envelopes is the usual working figure, but treat it as a starting point rather than a conversion.
- "A very little water"Sheet-free granulated gelatine needs roughly 1/4 cup of cold water per two envelopes to bloom, five minutes, then gentle heat to dissolve. Gelatine does not "dissolve" in cold water no matter how long it soaks; it swells, and the sugar-free grains only go clear over a low flame or in a bowl of hot water.
- CreamA quart of heavy cream at 36% or more. Modern ultra-pasteurised cream whips slower and holds less air; chill the bowl and beaters, and stop at firm peaks rather than genuinely stiff, since the gelatine will do the rest of the setting.
- Sweeten and flavourAbout 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar for a quart of cream, plus a tablespoon of vanilla or a couple of tablespoons of sherry, maraschino or brandy. Add sugar toward the end of whipping.
- Lining the mouldSplit sponge cake into 1/2-inch strips, or use ladyfingers, and stand them upright around a charlotte mould or straight-sided bowl of at least three quarts, with a disc of cake in the bottom. Trim so the pieces meet with no gaps, and press them tight; the filling will find any opening.
- Chilling and turning outThe original gives no time. Six hours refrigerated is the minimum and overnight is better. Dip the mould briefly in warm water, run a thin knife round the top edge, and invert onto a plate.
- YieldA quart of cream makes a large charlotte, generously twelve servings. It does not freeze well and it weeps by the second day, so make it the day before at the earliest.
Charlotte russe is generally traced to Marie-Antoine Carême, who is said to have renamed an earlier hot apple charlotte in honour of the Russian court, and who established the form still used: a mould lined with sponge fingers and filled with a cold cream. What marks this version out is the packaged gelatine, and the fact that a brand name appears in the ingredient list at all — Cox's, a Scottish firm, was one of the granulated gelatines that turned a professional confectioner's set piece into something a household cook could mould in the afternoon and unmould at supper. The word "Elegante" is doing the same work the brand name does: signalling that a dish once associated with hotel kitchens now belonged on a domestic dessert table.