Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Charlotte Aux Pommes

Apple Charlotte, Unmolded-a hot or cold dessert

This extremely good dessert is a thick, rum- and apricot-flavored apple puree piled into a cylindrical mold which has been lined with butter-soaked strips of white bread. It is baked in a very hot oven until the bread is golden brown, and is then unmolded. For the sake of drama, the mold should be 3 1/2 to 4 inches high. Be sure to pick the right cooking apples and that your purŽe is very thick indeed, or the dessert will collapse when unmolded.

For 6 to 8 people

6 lbs. firm non-juicy cooking    
apples (Golden Delicious are always reliable)   
A heavy-bottomed stainless or enameled pan 12 inches across
A wooden spoon

Quarter, peel, and core the apples. Slice them roughly
into 1/8-inch pieces. You should have about 4 quarts.
Place in pan, cover, and cook over very low heat for
about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

1/2 cup apricot preserves forced through a sieve   
1 cup granulated sugar   
2 tsp vanilla extract    
1/4 cup dark rum    
3 Tb butter

Uncover and beat in the apricot preserves, sugar, vanilla, rum, and butter. Raise heat and boil, stirring almost continuously until water content has all but evaporated-20 minutes or more. The puree should be a very thick and fairly stiff paste which holds it self in a solid mass in the spoon.
    
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

10 to 12 slices of homemade type white bread,
4 inches square and 1/4 inch thick   
A 6-cup, fireproof, cylindrical mold about 3 1/2 inches high   
1 cup clarified butter [below]

Remove crusts. Cut a square and 4 semicircles of bread to fit the bottom of the mold exactly. Saute to a very light golden color in 3 or 4 tablespoons of the clarified butter. Fit them into the bottom of the mold. Cut the rest of the bread into strips 1 1/4 inches wide. Dip in clarified butter and fit them, overlapping each other, around the inner circumference of the mold. Trim off protruding ends.
   
Pack the apple puree into the mold, allowing it to
form a dome about 3/4 inch high in the middle.  (It
will sink as it cools.) Cover with 4 or 5 butter-dipped
bread strips. Pour any remaining clarified butter over
the ends of the bread around the edges of the mold.

A pan     
A serving platter

Set in a pan (to catch butter drippings) and bake in
middle level of preheated over for about 30 minutes.
Slip a knife between bread and sides of mold; if bread
is golden brown, the charlotte is done. Remove from
oven and cool for 15 minutes. Reverse the mold on a
serving platter and lift the mold up a few inches to see
if the sides of the dessert will hold. If there is any
suggestion of collapse, lower the mold over the dessert
again; it will firm up as it cools. Test after 5 minutes
or so, until the mold can be safely removed.
  
1/2 cup apricot preserves forced through a sieve     
3 Tb dark rum    
2 Tb granulated sugar
Clarified butter, beurre clarifie

Boil the apricot, rum, and sugar until thick and sticky. Spread it over the charlotte. Serve the dessert hot, warm, or cold.

To clarify butter, cut it into pieces and place it in a saucepan over moderate heat. When the butter has melted, skim off the foam, and strain the clear yellow liquid into a bowl, leaving the milky residue in the bottom of the pan. The residue may be stirred into soups and sauces to serve as an enrichment.