Skip to main content
Dessert

Sweet Entremets

A layered dessert of bread, butter, marmalade, apples, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apricot and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 608 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Sweet Entremets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mold

  1. Shape the bread slices to cover the bottom and sides of a mold, then moisten them in melted butter.

  2. Arrange the bread around the mold and fill it with cold apple marmalade.

  3. Cover with slices of bread and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 25 minutes.

  4. Serve hot by carefully turning it out onto a dish.

Variations

  1. For a variation, layer apples and apricot marmalade in the mold before adding the bread.

  2. For Charlotte Russe, use Naples biscuits or sponge cake instead of bread, and fill with stewed apples and preserves.

  3. For Charlotte Russe à la Crème, fill a buttered mold with Naples biscuits, then fill with boiled cream mixed with sugar and vanilla.

  4. Add dissolved isinglass to the cream, whisk until nearly cold, and top with more biscuits if desired.

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. Apricot + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together608 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the outer shell and structure that holds the filling in shape.
Melted butter
Moistens the bread and promotes browning in the oven.
Apple marmalade
Supplies moisture and fruity sweetness to the filling.
Cream
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Isinglass
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when cooled.

The step that matters

Turning out the hot dish. Carefully turning the mold onto a dish matters because the softened bread and filling are fragile while hot. Letting it settle briefly helps the shape hold when released.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, apricot, biscuit, cream, sugar, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, apricot, biscuit, cream, sugar, vanilla. 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 sweet entremets recipes

Cold 5 See all 3 →

You might also like

Apple Bread PuddingApple Bread Pudding21 recipesApple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesBaking Powder BiscuitBaking Powder Biscuit119 recipes