Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Burnt Axmond Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the caramel and almonds
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 2 hours.
In a saucepan, heat sugar until it becomes liquid and dark.
Add chopped almonds and stir for 2 minutes.
Turn the mixture onto a platter and let it cool.
Break the mixture in a mortar.
Make the custard
Combine the broken mixture with milk and cook for 10 minutes.
Beat egg yolks with sugar.
Add the beaten yolks and gelatine to the cooking mixture.
Stir until smooth and dissolved, then remove from heat.
Set the mixture in a basin of ice water.
Beat the mixture until it thickens.
Set and serve
Gently fold in whipped cream.
Pour the mixture into molds.
Refrigerate until firm.
Optionally, place sponge cake around the mold.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Almond + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the nutty flavour and crunchy texture once caramelised and broken into pieces.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cream and custard so the charlotte holds its shape when unmoulded.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that carries the almond flavour.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness through their emulsifying proteins.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dish and, when heated dark, creates the caramel flavour.
- Whipped cream
- Adds airy lightness and fat, giving the set dessert a soft, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture until it thickens. If the custard is not cooled enough over ice water, the gelatine can set unevenly or the cream may deflate when folded in. Cooling to a thick, spoonable state first keeps the whipped cream airy and the set even.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg, cream):
- Almondthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Pistachiofits less well
- Chestnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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