The Charlotte with Apples pie, a recipe which is traditionally considered to be from France, actually owes its origin to the British, who later brought it to France, where it firmly established itself and turned into French. The word "charlotte" itself most likely comes from an Old English charlyt, meaning a casserole of beaten eggs, sugar and flour. In France, the name of the cake was firmly associated with the female name Charlotte and came up with beautiful legends about the cook in love and the lady of his heart who bore this sweet name.
Classical charlotte with apples, the dough for which is made from crackers or white slices of bread dipped in milk, with its simplicity and "asceticism" is really more suitable for English cuisine than for fine French. However, the French introduced into this recipe their inherent sophistication with a variety of flavors and custard.
So, how to make a pie "Charlotte with apples"? The recipe for a bread cake is as follows. Slices of white bread without a crust, cut into even, rectangular slices of equal size, are dipped in a creamy egg mixture and soaked in it. For the mixture, low-fat cream is whipped with an egg, mixed with melted butter and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Well-soaked bread slices spread the bottom of the form, placing them tightly to each other so that there are no gaps. Then the rectangular pieces are set on the sides of the form so that one is slightly on top of the other and a “corrugated” rim is obtained. The resulting form of bread is filled with apple filling, which is poured with custard from above, and the charlotte is sent to the oven for twenty minutes. The apples (one kilogram) for the filling are finely chopped, put in a saucepan, filled with a glass of sugar, add a third of a glass of cider or white dessert wine (you can mix water with fruit liqueur), cinnamon, a little ground clove, nutmeg and cardamom, and cook on slow fire until the apples soften. Apples are poured from above with custard, for which 3 yolks, a glass of cream or milk and a glass of sugar are taken, the mixture is cooked on a gentle fire, stirring until it becomes thickened, then the proteins are whipped into a thick, dense foam and cooled. The whole mixture is gently and thoroughly mixed, apples are poured with it.
There are other ways to make Charlotte with Apple pie. Over the long history, it got a recipe for a lot of all kinds of modifications. For example, they make dough on breadcrumbs, which instead of flour knead a mixture of milk, eggs, sugar and butter, give it a little insist and swell, and then lay layers in a mold, shifting each layer with apples, and bake in the oven. Or, another pie “Charlotte with apples”, the recipe of which is also based on the use of white bread, only soaked slices of bread are laid in layers in a clay pot, interspersed with layers of fresh juicy apples, densely sprinkled with sugar. In the oven, apples give juice by soaking them in bread. The result is a succulent sweet dish that is recommended to be eaten hot.
Finally, a delicious charlotte with apples is baked according to the recipe, the most common and well-known with us. Russian charlotte is made from liquid biscuit dough, which is filled with apple slices laid on the bottom of the mold. For a biscuit, beat three yolks and three proteins, mix the yolks with sugar and flour, then add the proteins to the mixture. All mix very well. Apples are cut into slices, laid on the bottom of a frying pan or mold, sprinkled with a layer of icing sugar, and poured with biscuit dough on top. Charlotte is baked in the oven over medium heat for thirty to forty minutes.