Each mistress must have spoiled her household with fragrant charlotte with apples more than once. But any, even the most delicious pastries can be bored. What to come up with the original? How to add a touch of originality and piquancy to a familiar dish?
Today we offer you to cook a very delicate, incredibly fragrant, crispy charlotte with bananas. It is thanks to these fruits that the cake acquires an unimaginable exotic taste and rich caramel flavor.
Charlotte's Elusive Trail
As you know, true connoisseurs of gastronomic culture and history claim that delicious pastries with apples called "charlotte" appeared in Germany. But is it really so? There are several versions of the origin and origin of this dish.
In the history of charlotte, English, German and even Russian print can be traced. What culinary trail are we following today? Whose recipe is taken as the basis for the currently popular charlotte with bananas and apples?
An English queen by the stove?
Some sources claim that the dish first appeared in the kitchen of the castle of the English Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. The recipe for meat pudding, known at that time, was modernized by its majesty and turned into a sweet apple pie. However, apart from the consonance of the names, there is no evidence that the English queen was standing by the stove and experimenting with her own hands on a recipe for charlotte.
Russian charlotte without a hint of fruit
There is documentary evidence that Tsar Alexander I really loved the "Russian charlotte." A French cook was preparing it for the sovereign. The dish was a pie of biscuit cookies on the bottom and custard Bavarian cream on top. There was no hint of apples or any other fruit.
Perhaps cook Karim just remotely heard how charlotte is being prepared. Or maybe the culinary specialist decided to name the dish because in Russia at that time all the foreign young ladies were in the French manner - Charlotte.
True german
In fact, a pie with apples, and later a recipe for charlotte with bananas, was invented by German chefs. For the first time this sweet pastry appears in German bakeries. For many decades, stale bread was thrown away or sent to a pet bowl. But frugal German ladies considered it sinful to throw out bread, so at one point they decided to put it to recycling and invented a recipe for a wonderful sweet dessert.
Nobody argues: a charlotte with apples and bananas did not appear immediately. It was a long and difficult path of culinary experiments, which originated in the distant XVII century. She was not afraid of ridicule about the stinginess and stupidity of the Bavarian Frau, she was not afraid to be funny, so that in a few decades it would become traditional for many countries, national for Germany and simply universally beloved dish.
Cooking Charlotte in the Oven
Today we chose the simplest and most burdened with numerous ingredients recipe for charlotte with bananas in the oven. It is perfect for those housewives who are just starting their culinary journey and want to pamper their family with something sweet and tasty.
So, for the preparation of charlotte with bananas and apples, the following products will be required:
- Chicken eggs - 4 pcs.
- Wheat flour - 220 g.
- Butter to grease the mold - 10 g.
- Sugar - 140 g.
- Three large apples.
- Two bananas.
- A pinch of vanillin.
- Baking powder for the dough.
Mastering a step-by-step recipe for delicious charlotte with bananas and apples
Break eggs into a deep bowl. We add sugar to it. Using a blender (it is still more powerful than a hand whisk), beat the sweet mass to foam. Experienced housewives say that the more magnificent the mixture, the more airy the charlotte with bananas will be.
Pour baking powder into a thin stream during beating. Then add the sifted wheat flour mixed with a pinch of vanillin. Flour, as you know, has a different ability to absorb liquid, so the exact amount is impossible to name. Vary, as they say, for yourself. Note that the final result should be quite liquid. Charlotte dough will resemble a thick, flowing cream.
Fruit peel. Cutting is arbitrary. The layout inside the pie is similar to slicing. Someone will pack bananas inside a charlotte, and from above will focus on a beautifully laid out row of apple slices. Another housewife will hide all the fruits in a pie. The third, on the contrary, will place apples inside, and with bananas it will decorate the top. There are a lot of options.
The oven warms up to 190 degrees. Pour dough for charlotte into a baking dish covered with parchment paper. With bananas and apples, we act, as the imaginary soul of the cook will wish. Enough time to get the result - 25 minutes. It sometimes happens that the top of the pie starts to blush too early. If this happens, just get the charlotte, cover the top with foil and send it back to the oven.
You can decorate the cake with fresh mint leaves, light cream, fresh fruits or berries.
Charlotte with apples and bananas. Stale Bread Recipe
If you have a desire to cook Charlotte according to the classic recipe, then you will need the following set of ingredients:
- 200 g of stale black bread or white loaf (which is in the kitchen).
- Two eggs.
- 180 ml of milk.
- A pinch of salt.
- Half a glass of sugar.
- A pair of large apples.
- A few ripe soft bananas.
Cooking process
To cook charlotte with bananas in the oven, you need to grind yesterday’s loaf to a crumb using a blender. Divide the total mass into three parts. Pour one part of the crumbs to the bottom of the baking dish. We lay a layer of bananas on top, sprinkle with the second part of the crumbs. Then again put the apples and fill them with the remaining dough.
In a separate bowl, mix milk, chicken egg, granulated sugar and a pinch of salt. You can add vanillin or cinnamon to the mass for taste. The resulting mixture is filled with a loaf of apples and bananas. We set in the oven a temperature of 170 degrees and a time of 20 minutes.
Charlotte in a slow cooker
If you want to save a little time on the preparation of a delicious dessert, then you can use the kitchen assistant. In a slow cooker, charlotte cooks a little faster than in an oven. The process of preparing the dough and filling is exactly the same as in the first two recipes. Pour or pour the dough into the multicooker bowl, lay out the selected filling and close the lid.
As a rule, in modern models there is a “Baking” mode. In some models, it will be called "Pie." But the essence of the name does not change, the set cooking time and the desired temperature will already be automatically set. Just click on the button and wait for the signal to complete the operation.
Note that in a crock-pot of charlotte with bananas (a photo of the finished product is a direct confirmation of this) it turns out no worse than in the oven. And time and effort is spent on cooking an order of magnitude less.
Useful tips and tricks
If there is little flour, then you can replace it with oatmeal, crushed in a blender, or semolina.
If you don’t have sugar at hand, you can use homemade jam, honey or put more sweet bananas instead.
If the oven does not work, then a charlotte with apples and bananas can always be cooked in a slow cooker, a bread machine, in a double boiler, even on an air grill and in the microwave.
If you did not find the desired baking dish, then just grab any bulky ceramic or glass plate. Even a shallow pan or bowl may come up.
If there was no mixer for whipping, then the solid foam in the dough can be obtained by working with your hands. Of course, the process will take an order of magnitude more time, but you can do without a modern powerful kitchen device.
If the charlotte turned out to be insufficiently magnificent, this suggests that the biscuit (in essence) baking was disturbed in the first 15 minutes of being in the oven. Doing this is strongly discouraged. In addition, you can get a more magnificent cake if you beat the egg mixture correctly and long enough. In some recipes, it is recommended to mix the dough for charlotte only with a spatula.
You can choose any apples for the pie. For sweet tooth, red sweet ones are suitable, for lovers of spicy acidity - Antonovka or green Grushevka. Sweet and sour apples will be an ideal option, giving a balanced taste of the filling.
If you want to freeze a pie, as they say, "for the future", then experienced chefs categorically do not recommend doing this. Since charlotte is a biscuit cake, after defrosting the apple filling and the biscuit mass will turn into an unpleasant slurry.
What is the calorie content of a popular dessert? This question worries, perhaps, every second housewife thinking about preparing this dessert. If we talk about the biscuit option, then you get about 240 kcal per hundred grams of cake. If we are talking about the second recipe with yesterday’s loaf, then there will be slightly less calories - 216. You can reduce the calorie content of the cake if you use finely ground oatmeal instead of flour, and instead of sweet bananas confine yourself to low-calorie apples.
If a nursing or expectant mother wants to cook charlotte, she can do it with pleasure. There are no ingredients prohibited for pregnant or lactating women in the dish.