Apple Charlotte Recipe

Crisp buttery bread outside and fragrant sweet apples softened to a delectable pulp inside, the apple charlotte has been a traditional English dessert for at least two centuries. It’s a very simple recipe and the secret of success lies in the ingredients. When made with good baker’s bread, real butter and flavoursome eating apples it is a delight, but use sliced bread, marg and cooking apples and you’ll be disappointed.

You can make this in an oven proof pudding basin, but it is better made in a metal cake tin, so that the bread really browns to golden crispiness. All the apple charlotte needs to accompany it, is a good dollop of thick cream, or some vanilla ice-cream if you prefer.

Recipe for Traditional Apple Charlotte

Ingredients
175g / 6oz butter
750g / 1 ½ lb apples (half Bramley and half Cox’s orange pippins or similar)
caster sugar
2 egg yolks
half a loaf of good white bread

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F.
Look out a deep cake tin or other baking tin of a 1 litre capacity.
Peel, core and slice the apples. Put in a pan with a knob of butter, a very little water and 2-4 tablespoons caster sugar, according to the sweetness of your apples. Cook gently until the juices run, then over a higher heat, until the apple is soft and can easily be beaten to a pulp. Taste for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary. Beat in the egg yolks off the heat and leave to cool while you prepare the tin.

Melt the butter.
Cut the bread into 1cm thick slices and remove the crusts. Dip the slices of bread into the melted butter briefly on each side and line the tin tightly with them so that there are no gaps. You can use some beaten egg white to brush over any joins to seal them if you like.

Pour the apple pulp into the lined tin and top with a last slice of bread, also dipped in butter. Cover the top with an ovenproof plate. Bake at 200C / 400F for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 190C / 375F, remove the plate and bake for another 40 minutes until golden.

Give it at least 10 minutes to cool slightly before serving, then slide a knife around the inside edge to release the pudding and invert it onto a serving plate.

Looking for traditional English desserts cooked for you? Why not try one of Nottingham’s fine British restaurants for a wonderful Sunday lunch with the family.