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Dessert

Baked Apple Charlotte

A baked dessert of layered apples, crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, water, brandy, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Baked Apple Charlotte

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Pare, slice, and chop the apples.

Assemble

  1. Butter a pudding dish and cover the bottom with fine crumbs.

  2. Add a thick layer of apples, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

  3. Repeat layers of crumbs and apples until the dish is full.

  4. Pour in the water mixed with sugar and brandy before the final layer of crumbs.

  5. Cover with crumbs and invert a deep plate over it.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncover and brown the top.

  2. Serve with sweet sauce.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Provide the bulk of the filling, holding their shape and turning tender while baking.
Fine bread crumbs
Form the layers that soak up juices and bake into a soft, structured crust.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelise lightly as they bake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the liquid poured over the layers.

The step that matters

Covering the dish with the inverted plate before baking. The covered first bake steams the apples until tender while the crumbs soak up juice. Uncovering only at the end lets the top brown without drying the filling.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Applethe original
  4. Raisinfits about as well

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