Today, housewives' cookbooks are full of all kinds of step-by-step recipes for charlotte, and a photo of dessert with apples, cherries and other fruits in cooking magazines speaks of its great popularity in many countries.
Culinary experts disagree on the origin of charlotte. Some believe that this is a French dish, embodied by the great chef Marie Antoine Karem. Others have spoken about the involvement in her appearance of the wife of the king of England, Charlotte, who was the patroness of apple production. The American version says that the recipe was invented in the city of Charlotte, and in Russian cuisine they believe that the name is associated with German women who worked in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century in German bakeries - at that time the name Charlotte was very popular, so they are often called "charlotte".
However, the most likely country of origin is still England, since initially the recipe was similar to pudding and only eventually turned into a pie from bulk dough. But no matter what the story, one thing is certain - you can’t but love charlotte! She pleases the housewives with the simplicity of preparation, and eaters with their amazing taste and even those who follow the figure cannot refuse a piece of the pie: after all, it is low-calorie in its classic version.
Charlotte step-by-step recipes - basic technological principles
To prepare charlotte, you do not need to have special culinary skills. Often, it is the first dessert that beginners take to cook. But, despite the ease of each stage, there are certain principles that must be followed.
The main difference between charlotte and a simple apple pie is its appearance - the filling should always lie on top of the cake.
Traditionally, dessert is baked with apples that have a slight “sourness”, but they can be mixed with other fruits or completely replaced. You can use any berries, jam or even a protein cream as a filling.
For the preparation of dietary charlotte, wheat flour can be replaced with oatmeal or other more useful flour, and instead of sugar, use a sweetener or stevia.
Using a biscuit test is optional. You can make delicious charlotte from shortcrust pastry or cooked on sour cream, kefir, yogurt, mineral water.
Peeled apples darken due to contact with air. To avoid this, they need to be sprinkled with lemon juice and sprinkled with sugar.
When mixing the biscuit dough, observe the proportions of the preparation. Beat egg white with a small amount of salt - this adds them a higher viscosity, and speeds up beating. Eggs should be taken cold so that they beat better.
Do not use the mixer when combining the flour with the egg mass, so as not to let out air bubbles and to precipitate the dough.
In the process of baking, you cannot open the oven, otherwise the biscuit will “fall”.
Classic Apple Charlotte Step-by-Step Recipe
Dessert is an important element of the feast and, as a rule, requires considerable effort and time to prepare, but when it is not there, and the guests are on the doorstep, then classic apple charlotte will help to solve this issue, and will be a great addition to tea.
Ingredients:
Apples 700 g (net)
Eggs 6 pcs.
Wheat flour 720 g
Sugar (or powder) 320 g
Baking powder (or soda) 12 g
Fine salt 1 g
Cognac 80 ml
Ghee 30 g
Ground cinnamon 20 g
Vanillin 2 g
Cooking:
For classic charlotte, you need to choose the most fragrant varieties of apples, because they are the basis of dessert.
1. Wash the apples, remove the core and cut into slices of the same size. Sprinkle with cinnamon, pour in cognac and mix. Leave them to marinate while preparing the dough.
2. Turn on the oven 180 ° C. Take a detachable form, with a diameter of 26-28 cm, grease with melted butter. Do not lubricate the sides of the mold - the oil on the sides will cause the biscuit to rise only in the center. The dough must be baked immediately after kneading, so the baking dish and oven must be prepared in advance.
3. Separate the whites from the yolks. Add half the sugar to the yolks and beat with a mixer until they turn white.
4. Add a few crystals of salt to the proteins, and beat them until a strong thick foam forms and doubles in volume, then pour out the remaining sugar and vanillin and beat until it is completely dissolved.
Use only fresh chilled eggs. The container for making biscuit dough should be completely dry, otherwise the proteins may not beat or settle.
5. Carefully combine the yolks with the squirrels. Stir the egg mass with a spatula, clockwise movements, bottom-up. The lush mass should not settle, and such mixing allows you to save volume.
6. Start gradually introducing pre-sifted flour, combined with soda. Stir the dough with the same wooden spatula or spoon, from edge to center, from bottom to top, until the flour is completely mixed. The finished mass should be slightly liquid without flour lumps.
Sifting flour is mandatory - this allows it to be saturated with oxygen and makes the biscuit airy. Enter the flour mixture gradually through a sieve - this will prevent the formation of lumps.
7. Chop the bottom of the mold with icing sugar and lay half of the apples on it.
8. Pour in a piece of dough, put the remaining slices, and fill completely with biscuit mass.
9. Bake 25 minutes. During this time, the cake will become rosy, and will increase approximately twice. Do not open the oven while baking, otherwise the biscuit will settle. At the end of time, pierce it with a match in the middle, if it remains dry - the cake is ready.
10. Allow the charlotte to cool, then remove the side of the mold and turn it on a plate so that the apples are on top.
11. Serve the charlotte, chopped into batch slices, after cooling. Optionally, pour it with apricot sauce. Whipped cream, almond crumbs, grated chocolate, mint sauce are suitable for her.
Step-by-step recipe: charlotte with apples and cottage cheese
Ingredients:
Apples 600 g
Homemade cottage cheese (18%) 400 g
Eggs, canteens 2 pcs.
Lemon 1 pc.
Semolina 450 g
Sugar 350 g
Liquid honey 70 g
Baking powder 20 g
Vanilla essence 10 drops
Cooking:
Incredibly tasty and original charlotte is obtained even by a novice housewife - the main thing is to follow the step-by-step instructions in the recipe, and the photo of each stage will become a visual assistant.
1. Rub the lemon zest on a fine grater, and then squeeze the juice out of it.
2. Wash the apples, cut into slices, sprinkle them with lemon juice, mix with a little sugar.
3. Beat eggs with sugar until completely dissolved.
4. Melt the oil in a water bath, mix it with honey and pour into the egg mixture, then mix well. The oil should not be too hot so that the egg whites do not curl.
5. Beat the curd with a blender or rub through, and combine it with the eggs.
6. Sprinkle semolina and baking powder, pour in the vanilla essence and mix thoroughly. Give the test a little insist.
7. Preheat the oven to 220 ° C. Lubricate the mold with butter and lightly rub semolina. Put apples on the bottom, pour the dough on top. Bake charlotte at the set temperature for five minutes, and then reduce it to 180 ° C, and leave for another 30-35 minutes.
8. When the charlotte is ready and has cooled, turn the mold on a plate upside down and remove it. Sprinkle with lemon peel and garnish with mint leaves.
Chocolate charlotte with kefir cherries: a step by step recipe
Ingredients:
Kefir (2.5%) 500 ml
Flour 0.5 kg
Sugar 450 g
Eggs, dietetic 2 pcs.
Chocolate 100 g
Cocoa Powder 50 g
Fresh pitted cherries 600 g
Soda 10 g
Butter 220 g
Vanillin 8 g
Order of preparation:
1. Beat eggs with sugar
2. Melt the butter in a water bath and pour into the egg mass.
3. Add kefir, soda, cocoa and vanillin and mix. So that kefir and soda give a reaction and the dough is airy, use products at room temperature, not cold. Sugar can be ground into powder before kneading - this will allow it to dissolve faster.
4. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a water bath. Combine it with the dough until smooth.
5. Sift the flour and add it in parts to the bulk of the dough, mixing thoroughly. The consistency of the dough should turn out to be a little liquid, similar to sour cream.
6. Wash the cherries. Put on a paper towel to remove excess moisture. You can use frozen cherries, but in this case, after defrosting, you need to let it drain.
If too much liquid gets into the dough, it will be heavy and dense. Use a culinary technique so that the cherry does not drain and the cake does not turn out to be wet: touch berries with starch - it absorbs moisture well.
7. Lubricate the mold with oil and grind with semolina or flour. You can cover it with parchment paper before greasing, and then the charlotte will separate even better. It is better to use a detachable form so as not to damage the pastries in the future. Pour in some of the dough, and put half the cherries, then dough again and on top of the cherry.
8. Bake at 180 ° C in a preheated oven for approximately 35 minutes.
9. Wait for the charlotte to cool slightly, remove the form and transfer to a dish. If desired, you can crush with powdered sugar, which enriches dessert with its sweetness and color.
Charlotte Step-by-Step Recipe: Useful Tips and Tricks
Use apples of acidic varieties for charlotte, for example, antonovka - this makes it possible to set off the sweetness of baking.
To diversify the dessert, you can add nuts, raisins, dried apricots, prunes and more to the dough.
For baking, it is best to use silicone molds or with a Teflon coating - the dough practically does not stick to them.
If one third of the flour used in the dough is replaced with starch, the charlotte will not crumble.
To give Charlotte a festive look, decorate it with meringue cream or whipped cream. Even a festive table will decorate such a dessert, and it will take very little time to prepare it.
The larger the filling, the tastier the charlotte, however, its excessive amount will not allow the dough to rise sufficiently, and as a result, the charlotte will lose airiness.
