The charlota, charlotte or, in the Spanish version, charlota, is a French dessert that is known worldwide as one of the most delicious and versatile, since it has the ability to adapt to many ingredients.
It is a cake that can be made with a base of sponge cake or brioche already bought, without requiring baking, or by making delicious homemade sponge cakes like we have done today. It can be filled with jam, fruit, cream or ice cream, but today we bring you a version of the most classic, the apple charlotte.
The possible origin of this dessert is difficult to determine, but some say that born in the UK in the mid-18th centuryand it is compared to the famous English trifles, prepared in a mold and covered with buttered bread or pieces of brioche, filled with cooked fruit compote, such as pears, apples or plums.
Originally, these tarts were baked, but in the early 19th century, the original recipe was modified to become a dessert that it was served and eaten cold. Becoming popular among the upper social classes, who were the only ones who could afford to transport the cut ice to their kitchens.
Interestingly, the original name of the recipe is not known. One theory posits that it was taken from the queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of King George III of the United Kingdom. But like all classic desserts, there are also other versions, such as the one that suggests that it was created by Marie-Antoine Carême, the French royal chef for many years in the early 19th century. It is said that he adapted the recipe to a cold dessert made from ladyfinger biscuits and Bavarian cream and gave it the name charlotte à la parisienne or charlotte parisiennenamed after Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, the only daughter of King George IV.
Carême himself renamed it some time later as charlotte à la russe or charlotte russe, when it was in the service of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, which suggests that the dessert was also named in honor of Tsarina Charlotte of Prussia, wife of Nicholas I of Russia. Either way, apple charlotte is a dessert that we invite you to try if you like delicate flavors and soft textures.
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We will start by preparing the soletilla biscuits if we want to make them homemadeIf you don’t have time to bake and prefer to use store-bought ones, you’ll skip this step.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade with heat up and down and middle rack position. With a mixer or some rods, we mount the egg whites until stiff, adding the 120 grams of sugar little by little. Carefully add the egg yolks, and mix for five seconds. Add the sifted flour and with a spatula mix the ingredients well.
Prepare a baking tray with non-stick paper. With a pastry bag and smooth tip, we make two disks of dough about 14 centimeters and about 15 biscuits 12 centimeters long. Sprinkle with icing sugar. We bake 12 minutes.
We make the bavaroise cream. To do this, we hydrate the gelatin sheets in very cold water. Then in a saucepan add the milk and the vanilla pod, heat until it boils. Pour the hot milk over the yolks, stir and return all the preparation to the saucepan, cooking the mixture up to 82 degrees centigrade, without allowing it to boil. Separate the English cream from the heat, add the well-drained gelatin and reserve.
Beat the cold cream with a whisk until slightly firm. When the crème anglaise is at 25 degrees, gently add the cream and mix with a silicone spatula. We booked. at room temperature.
Peel the apples and cut them into eighths. In a frying pan, melt the butter, add the apples and the sugar and sauté everything for 15 minutes or until apples are tender. To make the syrup, heat the water and sugar in a saucepan, bring it to a boil and add the apple liqueur. We booked.
Prepare a removable mold about 16 centimeters in diameter. We place the sponge cakes lightly soaked in the syrup around the wall of the mould. We insert one of the sponge discs as a base. Add half of the bavaroise cream, a layer of stewed apple, and repeat the operation, ending with a disc of sponge cake. Refrigerate for at least three hours. so that it gelifies the entire interior of the charlota. We serve very cold.
With what to accompany the apple charlotte
The apple charlotte It is perfect to accompany with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or even cover it with a good splash of vanilla English cream. It is a sweet but not heavy dessert, ideal to end a special meal.
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