Apple Charlottes are a great way to use up left over bread or apples and they’re dead-easy to make. Adding stem ginger and cinnamon gives it a little twist and during the festive period it’ll provide a great alternative to a Christmas pudding (which I personally can’t stand)
Serves 4:
Cooking time: Approx 35 mins
INGREDIENTS
- 6 – 7 slices of white bread
- 600g of apples
- 5-6 pieces of stem ginger, roughly chopped (usually comes in jars with syrup)
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk, beaten
- ½ tablespoon of ground cinnamon
- 200g butter
- Some icing sugar to dust over at the end (optional)
You’ll also need 4 small, oven proof pudding tins
METHOD:
Peel the apples and cut them into small chunks. Place them into a saucepan, sprinkle in the sugar and a quarter of the butter. Cook over medium-low heat until the apples are soft, then add in the stem ginger pieces and cinnamon and cook for further minute. Using a blender or a fork beat the mixture into a puree. It’s up to you how smooth or course you want to make the mixture. I personally quite like it when it’s still got some texture. Set aside to cool down.
Next, gently melt the remaining butter in a saucepan or microwave. Then remove the crusts from the bread slices and, using a rolling pin (or a wine bottle for those of us who never managed to buy a rolling pin!), flatten them a bit until they’re about 6-7mm thick. Now cut them into 3-4 cm wide strips and brush each side with the melted butter. You’ll also need to cut out two circles to make up the top and bottom of the Charlotte (Use your pudding basins/tins as a guide to cut around) and don’t forget to butter them too.
Place one of the circles in the bottom of your pudding tin, and then line the sides with the bread strips. Make sure to overlap them and press them down firmly otherwise the filling will spill out the sides.
Once the apple mixture has cooled stir in the egg yolk before filling each pudding tin. Seal the tins with the remaining circular bread pieces and place the tins on a baking tray. Place another tray over the top of the charlottes and weigh it down with a heavy, oven proof dish.
Now preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. When it’s come up to temperature place the Charlottes on a middle shelf and bake for about 40 minutes. Remove the top baking tray for the last 10 minutes of cooking to brown the top. When done, remove from the oven and let them cool down a little bit (4-5 minutes) before turning them out onto serving plates. Dust with a little bit of icing sugar and cinnamon and serve with a scoop of vanilla icecream.
