Apple Charlotte Recipe: Julia Child's Buttered Bread Case, Filled With Rum and Apricot Apples

GBH, the Boston public broadcaster, posted Gen Z Tries Julia Child: Apple Charlotte on 12 November, in which young cooks Archie and Gabel take on one of the most architectural apple desserts in Child's repertoire. It follows an instalment on Julia Child's french fry plate on 9 November, part of a run of new episodes this month.

An apple charlotte is not a cake. It is a bread pudding in a mould: slices of firm bread fried in butter, lined round a tin, then filled with apples cooked down to something close to jam. It bakes until the bread turns into a golden, crisp case, and you turn it out to show off the shape. According to Wikipedia's history of the charlotte, versions were known in England from the mid-18th century, a charlotte of apples appeared in France in 1806, and Marie-Antoine Carême described many varieties in 1815. The name's origin is disputed, and one story links it to Queen Charlotte.

The recipe below is a metric adaptation built on the ingredient list and method on GBH's page, which follows Child's version: apples reduced with sieved apricot jam, rum and vanilla, in a mould lined with clarified-butter-browned bread, finished with a jam glaze. The point is a filling thick enough to stand up when the mould comes off.

Ingredients

Serves 8. Total time about 2 hours 45 minutes, including a 30-minute rest. You need a 1.5-litre charlotte mould or a deep round tin of about 18 cm.

• 1.5 kg firm apples, such as Cox or Granny Smith, peeled, cored and cut into 2 cm pieces
• 40 g unsalted butter, melted
• 160 g apricot jam, divided
• 100 g caster sugar
• 45 ml dark rum
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 90 g clarified butter or ghee, plus a little for the mould
• 1 firm white sandwich loaf, about 450 g, unsliced
• 1 tbsp water, for the glaze

Method

1. Cook the apples in a wide heavy pan over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring, until they begin to soften.
2. Press 80 g of the apricot jam through a sieve into the pan. Add the sugar, rum, vanilla and melted butter, and simmer over medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture is thick enough that a spoon drawn through it leaves a clear track.
3. While the apples cook, heat the oven to 220 C (200 C fan). Cut the crusts off the loaf and slice it about 1 cm thick. Cut one disc to fit the base of the mould and enough rectangles or wedges to line the sides, overlapping slightly.
4. Fry the bread slices in clarified butter in batches over medium heat until pale gold on both sides. Brush the mould lightly with clarified butter and line the base and sides, pressing the slices together so there are no gaps.
5. Fill the mould halfway with the apple mixture, add a layer of bread, add the rest of the filling and cover the top with bread. Drizzle with any remaining clarified butter.
6. Stand the mould on a baking tray to catch drips and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the edge slices are deep golden brown.
7. Leave the charlotte in the mould for 30 minutes so it can set.
8. Run a knife around the edge, set a serving plate on top, flip firmly and lift the mould away. If it starts to slump, put the mould back and let it set a little longer.
9. Warm the remaining 80 g jam with the tablespoon of water, sieve it if lumpy, and brush it over the top and sides. Serve warm.

Tips for a charlotte that stays standing

Choose firm bread. GBH's advice is that if you can squeeze a slice and your fingers meet, it is too soft. Unmoulding is the hardest step, and the 30-minute rest does most of the work. If you have only a baguette, GBH says it will work in a pinch.

Cook the filling longer than seems necessary. A wet filling is the usual reason a charlotte collapses. Pears can replace half the apples, and calvados can replace the rum. Leftovers keep, covered, in the fridge for two days and reheat in a 160 C oven for 15 minutes, though the bread loses some crispness.

Serve with cold crème fraîche or custard. With Thanksgiving on 26 November, a charlotte is a make-ahead dessert that looks far harder than it is, and one to try once before the day itself.