Charlotte

By ctozzi

A charlotte alternates sponge cake and mousse, custard or cheesecake. I have made a charlotte tiramisu which will go down as the most decadent dessert I have ever made and made quite an impression on everyone I served it to. I highly suggest this but beware, once you serve it the interest around what else you can do will begin. It can be served hot or cold and traditionally was made using day old bread. Think outside the box on this one. My thoughts drift to a warm bread pudding with cheesecake and caramel. Try instant mousse and add sugar free Jello powder to it for flavoring or fruit puree. If instant mousse is not available you can use heavy whipping cream whipped to a stiff peak stage and add the Jello powder to it.

Ingredients

• I'm offering my charlotte tiramisu recipe. Keep in mind this was made for work so I could not use alcohol. Once complete the inside is a beautiful marbling of cream and chocolate.
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup dark rum (I substituted with rum extract)
• 1/2 cup cold water
• splash of Amaretto (I substituted with almond extract)
• 2 1/2 lbs. mascarpone
• 36 ladyfingers
• 2 cups coffee reduction or espresso (I used instant espresso powder without the kahlua)
• splash Kahlua
• chocolate shavings (optional)

Details

Adapted from keyingredient.com

Preparation

Step 1

Make the coffee reduction or espresso.
Whisk egg yokes, rum, Amaretto, sugar, and water over a hot water bath (use a double boiler if you have one) until thick and ribbony. This mixture when finished is called zabaglione. <--This is so good. This can be frozen with fruit added to it.
Cool the zabaglione mixture over ice bath.
Whisk cooled zabaglione and mascarpone cheese together until well incorporated and smooth. DO NOT overmix or the mascarpone will break and become granular.
To prepare coffee reduction, simmer 4 cups of coffee until reduced by half. Cool and add Kahlua.
Prepare a 10 inch springform pan by lining the bottom and sides with parchment paper. If you don't have a springform like me, you might try a 10 inch casserole dish. Sometimes we have to be creative.
Place a layer of ladyfingers, flat side down, on the bottom of the pan, leaving a 1 inch gap between the sides and the ladyfingers. The 1 inch gap is so you can add more ladyfingers in an upright position in step 9.s
Using a pastry brush, soak the ladyfingers with the cooled coffee reduction.
Fill a pastry bag (you can buy disposable bags at most housewares shops) with the mascarpone mixture and pipe a rope of cream to fill the gap around the ladyfingers. Also pipe cream across ladyfingers.
Place ladyfingers, in upright position, sugar side out, against the pan. Be sure to push them into the cream and fit them tightly against on another.
Begin the next layer by placing ladyfingers on the cream layer. You may cut them to create a perfect fit. Brush them with the coffee reduction.
Pipe a layer of cream on top of ladyfingers and smooth with a spatula.
Allow to chill overnight.
To unmold, simply undo springform and remove pager collar. Top with chocolate shavings and serve. If you didn't use a springboard, you can spoon serve from your pan. Not as pretty, but just as tasty.