It would seem that it could be easier than apple pie "charlotte"? Indeed, the ingredients are simple, fresh apples on sale all year round, and how many recipes for this amazingly delicious pie can be found!
Have you ever wondered why a well-known pie has such a name? The name is French. But why exactly “charlotte”, and not “antoinette”, for example? I read somewhere long ago that the French took the British bread pudding as a basis and simply changed the recipe to their liking. But the fact that the dish got its name in honor of Queen Charlotte - the wife of King George III, due to the fact that she was considered the patroness of apple producers, she accidentally found out. Interesting!
In the classic English version, a pie or apple pudding is prepared in croutons. A loaf of bread or a wheat bun is freed from crusts, cut into rather thin slices, each of which is dipped in melted butter, wrapped with breadcrumbs and high-sided sides, sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and pre-cooked apple filling is placed in the middle. To do this, peeled and finely chopped apples, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, are stewed separately in another bowl in butter, stirring quickly, so as not to burn. When the filling is ready, shift it into a form with bread slices, cover with bread in butter again and sprinkle with plenty of breadcrumbs. Bake in a well preheated oven. Probably delicious. But to be honest - I didn’t try to cook according to this recipe. In my opinion, it turns out "oil butter."
In Russian collections of recipes of the early twentieth century, there is also a dish called "Charlotte from apples", where slices of white bread soaked in a mixture of milk and egg were also taken as a basis, and the filling from apples (plus lemon peel) was laid out in layers mixed with pieces of bread. All this was subsequently baked in the oven.
Now, most of the recipes for such a dessert as a “charlotte” made from apples are biscuit dough made from premium white flour with apples, and not from bread soaked in one way or another. Almost every European country (and not only in Europe) has its own recipe for such a dish as apple pie "Charlotte". Serve a cake for tea with whipped cream, with ice cream, but with anything!
I also tried to add a lot of things to my version of the pie - I mixed cocoa and currants with apples, but the most delicious oddly enough, the charlotte apple pie is obtained according to the simplest recipe, from the minimum amount of ingredients. And it always turns out well, and is eaten instantly, in whatever large form it cooks. By the way, a “charlotte” with apples in the microwave is no worse than in a classic oven.
Try making my Charlotte apple pie in my recipe!
For a medium-sized shape, you need to take 3-4 eggs, a glass of sifted flour, a glass of granulated sugar, a little more than a third of a teaspoon of soda (put out with vinegar), sour cream of any ¼ cup and, of course, 5-6 pieces of apples (depending on size and more and less). It tastes better with more acidic varieties of apples, although I take any that are. It’s just that if you really have a sour variety, you need to remember to add sugar to them.
Cooking the dough.
Stir the sugar with the chilled eggs thoroughly, add a pinch of salt, add sour cream to the mixture, stir in the flour gradually, add the baking soda that was quenched in vinegar (you can also quench soda in sour cream, but practice has shown that quenching in vinegar gives the best effect). Yes, you can beat eggs with sugar without separating the yolks from the proteins, but again, it’s better if you still don’t put them together in the dough, but first add the yolks with sugar, and after everything that was interfered with the dough, add beaten squirrels. The dough should turn out to be quite liquid, the consistency of thick sour cream, so we add the flour gradually, it may take more, or maybe a little less. If you want to add vanilla sugar for the smell - please!
Now apples. If they are very hard with a hard peel, then it is better to peel it. Cut into slices, pour apples over with boiling water, but be sure to dry them slightly later, folding them on a towel to remove excess water from them. If apples are soft table varieties, then this is not necessary, there is a thin peel - you can not peel it off at all. Then pour the sour apples with sugar (you don’t need sweet ones) and add apple slices into the dough, evenly distributing the apples over the whole mass with a spoon. Then we shift, or rather, pour it into a mold greased with oil (or other cooking oil) and sprinkled with breadcrumbs.
We put in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. (If you cook in the microwave, then in a glass form at medium power, approximately 15 minutes, but maybe a little more time will be required - you need to observe).
One point to note - do not open the oven door to see what's with the pie for the first 15 minutes, otherwise the dough that started to rise will fall off, and the cake will not work out lush.
We check the readiness with a match or a wooden toothpick, sticking it into the pie closer to the middle: if nothing sticks (and by this time the delicious smell of the baked one will already spread throughout the apartment), then everything is “charlotte” ready !. You can take it out of the oven. And, as soon as it cools slightly, shift to a dish and call all the household to drink tea!
Enjoy your meal!