Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Charlotte

A baked dessert of stewed apples in a buttered bread crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apple Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel, core and slice the apples.

  2. Place the sliced apples in a saucepan.

  3. Add the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water.

  4. Cook until tender.

  5. When the apples have become a smooth pulp, add the butter.

  6. Add the lemon rind.

  7. Sweeten to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Take a plain souffle mold.

  2. Cover the bottom with a round of bread cut into quarters and dipped in melted butter.

  3. Line the sides of the mold with overlapping rounds of bread or long strips dipped in oiled butter.

  4. Fill the mold with the apple pulp.

  5. Cover the top with a round of bread.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cooking apples
Cook down into a smooth pulp that forms the filling.
Bread
Forms the golden, sturdy shell that holds the apple pulp in the mold.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bread brown as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the apple pulp and adds a caramel note.

The step that matters

Cook the apples until a smooth pulp. The apples must soften fully so the filling sets firm enough to hold its shape when unmolded. Undercooked apples stay chunky and release excess liquid during baking.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter, bread):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, butter, bread. 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.

More apple charlotte recipes

Swiss 4 See all 235 →

You might also like

Apple Bread PuddingApple Bread Pudding21 recipesApple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipes