The modern confectionery industry has evolved to the point that the same dish can be prepared in different kitchen machines. This article will tell you in detail how to cook charlotte at home, using an oven, slow cooker, microwave and even a bread machine.
To begin with, it is worth clarifying: an ordinary charlotte is a biscuit with pieces of fruit inside, sometimes with the addition of nuts, raisins. This version of cooking was immediately loved (unlike the English version, more similar to pudding) for its simplicity and pleasant unobtrusive taste.
Cooking in the oven
How to cook charlotte with apples, if a person has insufficient culinary skills? For this, there is a classic recipe that uses only eggs (4 pcs.), Sugar (180 grams), flour (160 grams) and, of course, apples (3-4 pcs.). Some add vanilla or cinnamon for additional flavoring of the dough (just a pinch so that the spice emphasizes the aroma, rather than interrupting it).
Apples are cut into medium sized pieces, removing the core. Beat eggs with sugar until a stable foam and gradually introduce flour. Next, fruit slices are laid out in the dough, mixed and poured into a silicone baking dish. Charlotte is baked at a temperature of 180 degrees until tender. The average baking time is forty minutes.
Option number 2
This method tells how to cook a magnificent charlotte without prolonged egg beating. After all, anything happens: perhaps a person does not have a powerful mixer, and not everyone likes to beat eggs with a whisk for many minutes. Considering that many people consider charlotte to be just a “lazy” apple pie, you can experiment with kneading the dough by creating various combinations of the available products. A detailed recipe for how to cook charlotte:
- Four eggs are mixed with a glass of sugar and a pinch of vanilla until crystals are completely dissolved.
- Cut three apples into slices and mix with a large handful of chopped nuts.
- Sift and mix 1.5 cups of wheat flour with a bag of baking powder.
- Add a glass of sour cream or kefir to the egg mass, mix and pour the flour. Knead until uniform.
- Mix the dough and apple-nut mixture.
Grease a silicone or detachable form with butter and sprinkle the bottom and walls with breadcrumbs, pour dough into it and place in an oven heated to 200 degrees. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 170 and bake until cooked. If you cook charlotte with apples in the oven, as described here, then it turns out to be more crisp and soft (if compared with the classic recipe). Therefore, you should not rush to remove the cake from the mold, let it cool slightly and get stronger.
Prototype of a modern charlotte
You can try to cook charlotte, as they prepared it in the old days in its homeland - in England. Some chefs call this option classic. Step-by-step cooking looks like this:
Sweet loaf cut into slices 1 cm thick.
Take 100 grams of sugar and butter, combine and melt, then add 300 grams of fresh milk and slightly beat with a fork.
Two apples cut into slices. In a stewpan, melt a spoonful of butter with sugar (3 tbsp.) And two tablespoons of water, place an apple sliced in them. Stir for five minutes, stirring.
Line a baking dish (preferably detachable) with parchment and grease a little. Dip the slices of the loaf in a sweet milk mass and spread tightly in a mold, and on top of them lay the caramelized apples. Sprinkle abundantly with breadcrumbs on top. If the milk mixture remains, then it can be poured there too. Charlotte is baked in the oven for 25 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees.
In a slow cooker
All the hostesses who have this machine in their arsenal are concerned about the question: how to cook charlotte in a slow cooker? After all, she bakes ordinary pies perfectly, doesn’t she cope with such a simple dish? Simply and easily! The recipe and cooking process is the same as for baking in the oven, only the cooking time will stretch for an hour, provided that the machine has a capacity of at least 700 watts.
How to cook charlotte in a slow cooker without eggs and flour? After all, there are situations when in the kitchen there is neither one nor the other, and I really want a sweet tea. Such a recipe also exists: mix a glass of semolina and 2 cups of kefir in a bowl (yogurt and fermented baked milk will also work), let the mass stand for half an hour so that the semolina swells. Then add to the mass of 1.5 cups of granulated sugar and 4 tbsp. tablespoons of oil, and it can be any, even vegetable. We also add the flavor (vanilla, lemon peel, cinnamon) and baking powder to the dough, each ingredient 0.5 teaspoons each. Thoroughly mix the mass and add to it three large apples, cut into pieces. We pour into the bowl of the multicooker, turn on the “baking” mode and the timer for one hour. Ready charlotte can be sprinkled with powdered sugar for attractiveness.
Curd Charlotte
This is another way of making charlotte so that it turns out to be unbanal. After all, apples with cottage cheese are rarely used in everyday baking. To prepare such a charlotte, you need to grind white butter with 100 grams of granulated sugar and a pinch of vanilla, add 300 grams of cottage cheese and mashed in a blender into a homogeneous mass. Beat 5 eggs separately with a glass of sugar until a good froth and gradually introduce a glass (with a slide) of flour. Then combine the cottage cheese and the egg mixture.
Cut four sweet apples into slices and lay out the bottom of the crock-pot bowl, necessarily oiled and a little sprinkled with breadcrumbs or flour. Pour the dough onto apples, close the lid and turn on the “Baking” mode for 1 hour. If the machine is powerful, then the time can be reduced to 40 minutes. According to the same recipe, you can bake charlotte in the oven.
Using a microwave
But how to cook charlotte in the microwave, consider in more detail, because this process takes no more than 20 minutes, including baking. First you need to prepare apples: 500 grams of fruit cut into slices and mix with st. a spoonful of sugar and a pinch of ground cinnamon. Beat 100 grams of butter and 150 grams of granulated sugar with a mixer until light foam and add 4 eggs. When the mixture becomes homogeneous, add 160 grams of flour to it, mixed with 1/3 teaspoon of soda and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Juice can be replaced with citric acid. To stir thoroughly.
Take a high silicone baking dish, grease inside with butter and put half of the dough on which to pour apples and flatten with a spoon. Then put the rest of the dough and put the form in the microwave. At 650 watts, the charlotte will be ready in 10-12 minutes, but it should not be taken out immediately after the timer has been triggered - let the pie stand for another ten minutes inside and reach the condition.
And even in the bread maker!
Yes, this is also possible, and you don’t have to worry about kneading dough, beating eggs - the machine will do everything. The recipe below will tell you how to cook charlotte with walnuts, which go well with apples, emphasizing their taste. Essential Ingredients:
- 2 eggs;
- 3 sweet apples;
- 50 grams of butter;
- 1 cup sugar;
- 100 grams of milk;
- 450 grams of flour;
- 0.5 teaspoon of baking powder and cinnamon;
- a pinch of cardamom and ground ginger.
In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, and pour milk, melted butter and eggs into the bowl of the breadmaker. Next, we rub one apple on a grater, and cut the rest into small cubes and put everything in a bread machine. Pour the dry mixture of flour and spices from above and turn on the fast baking mode. Cooking time is set automatically, usually it is an hour and a half or a little more. While the charlotte is preparing, it is better not to open the lid.
How and with what is this dish usually served?
After all possible options for preparing charlotte are studied and the dish is cooked, it remains to arrange it and serve beautifully.
Usually, apple charlotte is sprinkled with powdered sugar, sometimes decorated with whipped cream and sugar, and the most inveterate sweet tooth put a couple of vanilla ice cream balls on a piece of cake. For fragrant charlotte, it is better to serve freshly brewed tea or cocoa, but with a cup of coffee it will also be very good.