A charlotte is a type of

bread pudding Bread pudding is a popular bread-based United Kingdom, British dessert. It is made with stale bread and milk or cream, generally containing egg (food), eggs, a form of fat such as oil, butter or suet and, depending on whether the pudding is swe ...

that can be served hot or cold. It is also referred to as an " icebox cake".

Bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

sponge cake Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during ...

, crumbs or

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

cookie A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...

s are used to line a mold, which is then filled with a

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

puree or

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...

. The baked pudding could then be sprinkled with powdered sugar and glazed with a

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

, a red-hot iron plate attached to a long handle, though modern recipes would likely use more practical tools to achieve a similar effect. The variant charlotte russe also called charlotte parisienne, created by the French chef

Antonin Carême Antonin may refer to: People * Antonin (name) Places ;Poland * Antonin, Jarocin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Kalisz County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Oborniki County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Ostr� ...

, uses a mold lined with ladyfingers and filled with

Bavarian cream Bavarian cream, crème bavaroise or simply bavarois is a French dessert consisting of an egg-based cooked custard (milk thickened with eggs) and gelatin or isinglass, into which whipped cream is folded. The mixture sets up in a cold mold and is ...

. Classically, stale bread dipped in butter was used as the lining, but sponge cake or ladyfingers may be used today. The filling may be covered with a thin layer of similarly flavoured

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...

History

The charlotte is known to have existed by the late-18th century. In 1796, The New-York Magazine published a poem by

Joel Barlow Joel Barlow (March 24, 1754 – December 26, 1812) was an American poet, diplomat, and politician. In politics, he supported the French Revolution and was an ardent Jeffersonian republican. He worked as an agent for American speculator William ...

called The Hasty-Pudding which included the following lines: Some have claimed that it was a tribute to Britain's

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until her death in 1818. The Acts of Un ...

. In 1815, Marie-Antoine Carême claims to have thought of ''charlotte à la parisienne'' "", presumably in 1803, when he opened his own pastry shop. The earliest known English recipe is from the 1808 London edition of Maria Rundell's '' New System of Domestic Cookery'':

Cut as many very thin slices of white bread as will cover the bottom and line the sides of a baking dish, but first rub it thick with butter. Put apples, in thin slices, into the dish, in layers, till full, strewing sugar between, and bits of butter. In the mean time, soak as many thin slices of bread as will cover the whole, in warm milk, over which lay a plate, and a weight to keep the bread close on the apples. Bake slowly three hours. To a middling sized dish use half a pound of butter in the whole.

In Carême's 1815 ''Le Pâtissier royal parisien'', he mentions many varieties of charlotte: ; he mentions as the name used by others for what he called . Marie-Antoine Carême, ''Le Pâtissier royal parisien'', 1815
full text
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Types

There are many variants. Most charlottes are served cool, so they are more common in warmer seasons. Fruit charlottes usually combine a fruit purée or preserve, like raspberry or pear, with a custard filling or

whipped cream Whipped cream, also known as Chantilly cream or (), is high-fat dairy cream that has been aerated by whisking until it becomes light, fluffy, and capable of holding its shape. This process incorporates air into the cream, creating a semi-soli ...

. Charlottes are not always made with fruit; some, notably charlotte russe, use custard or

, and a

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

charlotte is made with layers of chocolate

mousse A mousse (, ; ) is a soft prepared food that incorporates air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture. Depending on preparation techniques, it can range from light and fluffy to creamy and thick. A mousse may be sweet or savory. as early ...

filling. The ''Algerian charlotte'' is made with

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

, dates, orange rind, and almonds. The 19th-century Russian ''sharlotka'' is a baked pudding with layers of brown bread and apple sauce, and has since evolved into a simple dessert of chopped apples baked in a sweet batter.

Charlotte russe

or is a cold dessert of

set in a

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal ...

lined with ladyfingers. A simplified version of charlotte russe was a popular dessert or on-the-go treat sold in candy stores and luncheonettes in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It consisted of a paper cup filled with yellow cake and whipped cream topped with half a

maraschino cherry A maraschino cherry ( ) is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainier, or Gold varieties. In their modern form, the cherries are first preserved in a brine solution usually ...

. The bottom of the cup is pushed up to eat. Charlotte royale is made with the same filling as a Charlotte russe, but the ladyfingers are replaced by slices of

Swiss roll A Swiss roll, jelly roll (United States), roll cake, cream roll, roulade, Swiss log or swiss cake is a type of rolled sponge cake filled with whipped cream, jam, icing, or any type of filling. The origins of the term are unclear; in spite of ...

Etymology

The earliest attestation of "charlotte" is in a New York magazine in 1796.''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', 188
''s.v.''
/ref> Its origins are unclear. It may come from the woman's name. One etymology suggests it is a corruption of the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word , a kind of custard, or ''charlets'', a meat dish. It is often claimed that Carême named it charlotte after one of the various foreign royals he served, but the name appears years earlier. Carême's preferred name for was , and he says (in 1815) that "others" prefer to call it , so it is unlikely that he named it ''russe'' for Czar Alexander I as has been proposed.

References

External links