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Apple Charlotte
Take a loaf of stale bread and, after removing all the crusts with a sharp knife, cut up the crumb into slices a third of an inch thick, and these slices again into fancy shapes, such as hearts, triangles, squares, rounds, etc. Cut out a round an inch and a half in diameter and lay in the center of the bottom of a round tin mould, then shape out several hearts large enough for the points to rest on the disc, while their rounded points touch the sides of the mould. Next cut some slices of the bread into rectangular strips and set them around the sides of the mould, standing upright, resting on the round ends of the hearts and overlapping each other. Dip each piece of bread in warmed butter before setting in the mould. Have ready some thick apple marmalade prepared thus: Peel and core some apples and cut them into slices, then place in a saucepan and put in some sugar, the peel of a lemon cut thin and a bit of cinnamon tied together. Moisten with a little water. Put upon the stove and boil and then let simmer until the apples fall. Remove and take out the lemon peel and cinnamon and stir briskly with a wooden spoon until the marmalade is of a stiff consistency. Pour this into the bread-lined mould and cover the top with a slice of bread dipped in the warmed butter and cut to fit the mould. Put the charlotte into a brisk oven and bake until the bread is a golden brown. Turn out onto a dish and sprinkle caster sugar over it and then glaze it with a very hot salamander, pouring apricot marmalade around the dish; or, instead of the glazed sugar, cover the charlotte over with apricot marmalade.
A classic charlotte built from butter-soaked bread in a mould, and it lives or dies on how stiff the apple filling is. The original assumes a pastry cook's batterie; the substitutions are simple.
- The hinge: drive off the waterThe apples must be cooked down until they are nearly a paste and hold a furrow when you drag a spoon through them. A loose, juicy filling will soak the bread and the charlotte will slump the moment you unmould it. Expect 30 to 45 minutes of reducing and stirring for six or seven apples.
- "Brisk oven"Read that as a hot oven, roughly 400 to 425F. You want the butter-soaked bread to set and colour quickly rather than steam; the recipe's own test is colour, so bake until the bread is golden brown rather than to a fixed time.
- SalamanderA salamander was an iron plate heated red in the fire and held over the sugar to caramelise it. A blowtorch does the same job; a very hot broiler for a minute or two is the alternative, watching it constantly.
- Caster sugarSuperfine sugar. Granulated sugar pulsed briefly in a spice grinder is a fair stand-in, and it melts more evenly under heat than coarse crystals.
- The mouldA traditional charlotte mould is a plain tin pail, slightly flared, holding about a quart. A straight-sided cake tin or a small souffle dish works, though the flared sides of the proper mould are what let the thing turn out cleanly.
- BreadUse a firm white loaf, a day or two old, cut about 1/3 inch as directed. Modern soft sandwich bread tears when dipped in butter and gives a pasty wall. Warmed butter means melted but not browned.
- ApplesA variety that breaks down is what is wanted here: Bramley or McIntosh. Firmer keepers tend to hold their slices and are less suited to the stiff mash the recipe depends on.
- Apricot marmaladeThis is apricot jam sieved and boiled briefly to a glaze, not citrus marmalade. Warm it and thin with a spoonful of water so it pours.
- Yield and servingA quart mould serves six. Rest it 10 minutes before turning out so the filling firms, and serve warm rather than hot.
The apple charlotte is generally traced to late eighteenth-century England, and the name is usually said to honour Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, though that attribution rests on tradition rather than documentation. It should not be confused with the charlotte russe that Careme built from ladyfingers and Bavarian cream; this older form is a thrift dish at heart, a way of turning a stale loaf and a glut of windfall apples into something that comes to the table under a glazed crust. The French kitchen supplied the technique, the hearts and rounds cut from bread and the salamander glaze, while the dish itself came straight out of the domestic English tradition.