Raspberry Charlotte royale

After the easy and light red fruit charlotte, here I come again with this charlotte royale recipe! Royal but certainly not impossible, even if this one is not my favorite memory from the French Great Bake Off, as mine collapsed miserably because of a defective thermometer (get yourself a good cooking thermometer people!) Indeed, because the most important point when making a charlotte royale is the bavarois – the cream inside – for which you need to watch the temperature.

For the recipe, I used the sublime raspberry bavarois from Julien, a fellow bake from the French Great Bake Off. For the swiss roll, I followed the recipe Mercotte (one of the judges of the French Great Bake Off) gave us during technical test but for a quick version, I used ready-made mini swill rolls (yeah, without complex …). If you are less lazy than me and make the rolls yourself, you can roll the biscuits or cut squares and stack them in layers to create a graphic basket pattern like the 2nd picture (for more details on this technique you can go see my mint-chocolate charlotte royale recipe). So let’s make the royal ending of you next dinner!

Imprimer

Charlotte royale aux framboises

Prep time: 35mn
Rest time in the fridge: 12h

For one 20cm bowl / Serves 8

Ingredients

For the sponge cake*

6 eggs, separated
125g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
50g plain flour
75g cornflour
2 sheets of leaf gelatine
200g seedless raspberry jam

For the bavarois

4 sheets of leaf gelatine
550g raspberries
75g icing sugar
3 egg yolks
25g caster sugar
150ml whole milk
350ml double cream

To decorate

2 sheets of leaf gelatine
125ml clear apple juice
25g caster or jam sugar
100g raspberries

Instructions

Make the sponge

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease two Swiss roll tins and line with baking paper. Whisk the egg whites until standing in soft peaks. Gradually whisk in the sugar until the whites are stiff, then sieve in the flour and cornflour and fold in.
Divide the mixture between the two tins, easing it into the corners, and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and the cakes are starting to shrink from the sides of the tins.
Turn out onto sheets of parchment sprinkled with caster sugar and peel off the lining paper. Cover with a sheet of parchment and leave to cool.
When the sponges are cool, cut them in two lengthwise. Spread the jam and roll 4 thin swiss rolls. Wrap in cling film and refregirate few hours.

Make the bavarois cream

Soak the gelatine in cold water until softened. Blend the raspberries to a purée, sieve and put 300g of the purée in a bowl. Stir in the icing sugar and set aside.
Whisk the yolks, caster sugar, milk and 50ml of the cream together in a pan. Heat gently, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (83°C). When heating the egg yolk mixture to make the custard, take care not to let the mixture boil or it will curdle and you will end up with scrambled egg! If it looks in danger of getting too hot, remove the pan from the heat and whisk the custard briskly before returning it to the heat.
Pour the custard into a bowl, add the squeezed out gelatine leaves and stir until melted. Cool slightly before stirring in the raspberry purée. Leave until the custard has thickened slightly then whip the remaining cream until standing in soft peaks and fold in.

Assemble the charlotte

Line a big bowl or cul-de-poule with cling film.
Take the swiss rolls out of the fridge and cut them in 4-5 mm thick slices. Line the bottom and sides of bowl with the slices. Pour the Bavaroisin the center. Leave to cool for an hour then cover the cream with the remaining slices of swiss roll.
Put in the refrigerator for few hours (preferably overnight).
To decorate, soak the gelatine until softened. Heat the apple juice with the sugar until the sugar dissolves, squeeze out the gelatine and stir in until melted.
Turn out the charlotte onto a serving plate, peel off the cling film. Arrange the raspberries around the charlotte and add one top. Brush the apple juice mixture over the charlotte and raspberries to give them a shiny glaze.

Notes

*To make a faster but as goog looking charlotte royale you can use ready-made mini raspberry swiss rolls