Saturday, June 20, 2015

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge: #4 "Foreign" Foods, part 4- A French Charlotte

The Challenge:
Make a dish that reflects the historical idea of "foreign"- either foods with a loose connection to foreign lands, named after faraway places, or attributed to foreigners.

A French Charlotte
Of the two principle kinds of charlotte, the unbaked charlottes are purported to have begun by Chef Marie-Antoin Careme of France. Chef Careme worked for the Prince Regent of England in the early 19th century and likely encountered a baked charlotte popular in the 18th century. He introduced the charlotte a la parisienne by 1802. While he was working for Tsar Alexander, the name changed to charlotte russe.
American bakers in New York City would put their own spin on the confection by the 1880s.

I first began researching charlottes for portraying a confectioner and exploring all the elegant made confections on a 19th century dessert table. For Americans looking to impress, the association with the classically fashionable French makes the French Charlotte a welcome finish to the dinner party or theatre supper.


The Recipe:
From: The Lady's Receipt Book; A Useful companion for large and small families by Eliza Leslie, 1847
A French Charlotte.
--Lay in a deep dish or pan half a pound of bitter almond maccaroons (chocolate maccaroons will be still better) and pour on sufficient white wine to cover them well, and let them stand till entirely dissolved. Whip to a stiff froth a pint of rich cream, sweetened with sugar and flavoured with rose or lemon. Have ready a large circular almond sponge cake with the inside cut out, so as to leave the sides and bottom standing in the form of a mould, not quite an inch thick. Ornament the edge with a handsome border of icing. In the bottom of this mould put the dissolved maccaroons; over them a layer of thick jelly, made of some very nice fruit; and fill up with the whipped cream, heaping it high in the centre.

This is a very fine Charlotte, and is easily made, no cooking being required, after the materials are collected.


The Date/Year and Region: 
Mid Atlantic United States, 1840-1870

How Did You Make It:
The first step was to collect the ingredients. I will confess here I bought the jelly, as mine is a disaster every time.
Assemble the ingredients.
Set the macaroons to dissolve in white wine.











Prepare the whipped cream.
Add cream, sugar, and dash of lemon juice to a mixing bowl.
Blend with a spoon until sugar is moist.
Continue with an electric beater until the cream is stiff.











Cut the cake to form sides and bottom. I cut a ring at about 1.5 inches, removed the center circle and sliced it at about 0.75 inches, and returned it to the cake.











Now build the charlotte.
Add a layer of dissolved macaroons.











Add a layer of cherry jelly.











Ice the cake. (if one iced the cake before the center was filled, the icing would come off on the hands.)











Add a layer of whipped cream to cover.











Add a garnish of cherries.




Time to Complete:
Monday: Macaroons, 40 minutes
Tuesday: Sponge Cake 50 minutes
              Cooling the cake and dissolving the macaroons, 60 minutes
              Whipped Cream, 10 minutes
              Assembly, 15 minutes
Almost 3 hours total

Total Cost: 
This is definitely not something for the every-day table.

How Successful Was It: 
Day 1: You ARE gonna share that bite of gluten free heaven, right?
Day 2: Is there more? I could definitely have seconds... maybe thirds. Would you mind if we finish this off tonight?

How Accurate Was It: 
I would say fairly close, with exception of the store bought jelly.

Bonus Recipes:
Also from "The Lady's Receipt Book..." by Eliza Leslie.
Chocolate Maccaroons.
--Blanch half a pound of shelled sweet almonds, by scalding them with boiling water, till the skin peels off easily. Then throw them into a bowl of cold water, and let them stand awhile. Take them out and wipe them, separately. Afterwards set them in a warm place, to dry thoroughly. Put them, one at a time, into a marble mortar, and pound them to a smooth paste; moistening them, as you proceed, with a few drops of rose-water, to prevent their oiling. When you have pounded one or two, take them out of the mortar, with a tea-spoon, and put them into a deep plate, beside you, and continue removing the almonds to the plate, till they are all done. Scrape down, as fine as possible, half a pound of the best chocolate, or of Baker's prepared cocoa, and mix it, thoroughly, with the pounded almonds. Then set the plate in a cool place. Put the whites of eight eggs into a shallow pan, and beat them to a stiff froth, that will stand alone. Have ready a pound and a half of finely-powdered loaf-sugar. Stir it, hard, into the beaten white-of-egg, a spoonful at a time. Then stir in, gradually, the mixture of almond and chocolate; and beat the whole very hard. Drop the mixture, in equal portions, upon thin white paper, laid on square tin pans, smoothing them, with a spoon, into round cakes, about the size of a half-dollar. Dredge the top of each, lightly, with powdered sugar. Set them into a quick oven, and bake them a light brown. When done, take them off the paper.

For the first experiment, in making these maccaroons, it may be well to try a smaller quantity. For instance, a quarter of a pound of shelled almonds; a quarter of a pound of chocolate; four eggs; and three-quarters of a pound of sugar.

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge: #4 "Foreign" Foods, part 3- Rice Sponge Cake

The Challenge:
Make a dish that reflects the historical idea of "foreign"- either foods with a loose connection to foreign lands, named after faraway places, or attributed to foreigners.

Rice Sponge Cake
My French Charlotte recipe includes several components that must be created before the final creation can be assembled. Next up is a sponge cake. 
Since I wanted my roomie to be able to enjoy this dessert, it needed to be gluten free. I was delighted to find a period cake recipe that didn't call for wheat flour mixed with the rice flour. 

The Recipe:

Rice Sponge Cake
--Put twelve eggs into a scale, and balance them in the other scale with their weight in broken loaf-sugar. Take out four of the eggs, remove the sugar, and balance the remaining eight eggs with an equal quantity of rice-flour. Rub off on some lumps of the sugar, the yellow rind of three fine large ripe lemons. Then powder all the sugar. Break the eggs, one at a time, into a saucer, and put all the whites into a pitcher, and all the yolks into a broad shallow earthen pan. Having poured the whites of egg from the pitcher through a strainer into a rather shallow pan, beat them till so stiff that they stand alone. Then add the powdered sugar, gradually, to the white of egg, and beat it in well. In the other pan, beat the yolks till very smooth and thick. Then mix them, gradually, a little at a time, with the white of egg and sugar. Lastly, stir in, by degrees, the rice-flour, adding it lightly, and stirring it slowly and gently round till the surface is covered with bubbles. Transfer it directly to a butter tin pan; set it immediately into a brisk oven; and bake it an hour and a half or more, according to its thickness. Ice it when cool; flavouring the icing with lemon or rose. This cake will be best the day it is baked.

In every sort of sponge-cake, Naples-biscuit, lady-fingers, and in all cakes made without butter, it is important to know that though the egg and sugar is to be beaten very hard, the flour, which must always go in at the last, must be stirred in very slowly and lightly, holding the whisk or stirring-rods perpendicularly or upright in your hand; and moving it gently round and round on the surface of the batter without allowing it to go down deeply. If the flour is stirred in hard and fast, the cake will certainly be tough, leathery, and unwholesome. Sponge-cake when cut should look coarse-grained and rough.


The Date/Year and Region: 
Mid-Atlantic, 1840-1870

How Did You Make It:
6 eggs separated
2 cups rice flour
1.5 cups sugar
dash of lemon juice for flavoring

Separate the eggs into whites and yolks.









Beat the whites into a froth and add sugar.
Add the yolks and keep stirring.












Add the rice flour slowly, while stirring.
Grease your pan and set the oven.











Bake 40 minutes at 375* or until the center is squishy but not runny.
Here is the cake prepared for the charlotte.

Time to Complete: 
About 10 minutes to prepare, 40 minutes to bake.

Total Cost: 
I should have used a full recipe instead of half, so $2.00 for the dozen eggs and $4.00 for the rice flour adds up.

How Successful Was It: 
Like many gluten free baked goods, this cake is fabulous when warm and fresh. The egg flavor comes through like the finest of French crullers and the cake is moist and dense. As the cake sets, it becomes too dense and hard quickly. Interesting to see a baker in the past made the same observation, "...best the day it is baked."

How Accurate Was It: 
With recipes that base weights of items in proportion, we have to guess on quantity. I used 12 medium eggs (modern) equals one pound as a base. A website called Traditional Oven has conversion calculators for different types of flour, sugar, and pantry staples. 
I think this is as close to accurate as I can get until I borrow someone's antique baking pans and wood oven. :-)

Bonus Recipe:
From: The Lady's Receipt Book; A Useful companion for large and small families by Eliza Leslie, 1847

French Icing For Cakes.
--Dissolve some fine white gum arabic (finely powdered) in rose-water. The proportion should be, as much of the gum-arabic powder as will lie on a ten-cent piece to a tea-spoonful of rose-water. Beat some white of egg to a stiff froth that will stand alone. Stir in, gradually, sufficient double-refined powdered loaf-sugar to make it very thick, (a good proportion is four ounces of sugar to the white of one egg,) add to this quantity a tea-spoonful of the rose-water with the gum arabic dissolved in it, and beat the whole very hard. Instead of rose-water you may dissolve the gum in fresh lemon-juice. Previous to icing the cake, dredge it with flour, and in a few minutes wipe it off with a clean towel. This, by removing the greasiness of the outside, will make the icing stick on the better. Heap the icing first on the middle of the top of the cake; then with a broad-bladed knife spread it evenly all over the surface. Dip the knife frequently in a bowl of cold water as you proceed, and smooth the icing well. If not thick enough, wait till it dries, and then add a second coat.


What I *REALLY* did:
1 cup of confectioner's sugar
2 spoonfuls of milk
Mix well.

Results:
This was easy and didn't have any raw egg to pose a threat.

Historical Food Fortnightly-Challenge #4 "Foreign" Foods, part 2- Maccaroons

The Challenge:
Make a dish that reflects the historical idea of "foreign"- either foods with a loose connection to foreign lands, named after faraway places, or attributed to foreigners.

Maccaroons
My French Charlotte recipe includes several components that must be created before the final creation can be assembled. In this case, I'm starting with Maccaroons.
These macaroons are more like the coconut ones we are all familiar with, rather than the filled cookies popular at bakeries at present.

The Recipe:
From: The Lady's Receipt Book; A Useful companion for large and small families by Eliza Leslie, 1847

Ground Nut Maccaroons
Take a sufficiency of ground-nuts, that have been roasted in an iron pot, over the fire; remove the shells; and weigh a pound of the nuts. Put them into a pan of cold water, and wash off the skins. Have ready some beaten white of egg. Pound the ground-nuts, (two or three at a time,) in a marble mortar, adding, frequently, a little cold water, to prevent their oiling. They must be pounded to a smooth, light paste; and, as you proceed, remove the paste to a saucer or a plate. Beat, to a stiff froth, the whites of four eggs, and then beat into it, gradually, a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed. Then stir in, by degrees, the pounded ground-nuts, till the mixture becomes very thick. Flour your hands, and roll, between them, portions of the mixture, forming each portion into a little ball. Lay sheets of white paper on flat baking-tins, and place on them the maccaroons, at equal distances, flattening them all a little, so as to press down the balls into cakes. Then sift powdered sugar over each. Place them in a brisk oven, with more heat at the top than in the bottom. Bake them about ten minutes.

Almond maccaroons may be made as above, mixing one-quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds with three-quarters of shelled sweet almonds. For almond maccaroons, instead of flouring your hands, you may dip them in cold water; and when the maccaroons are formed on the papers, go slightly over every one, with your fingers wet with cold water.

Maccaroons may be made, also, of grated cocoa-nut, mixed with beaten white of egg and powdered sugar.

The Date/Year and Region: 
Mid-Atlantic, 1840-1870

How Did You Make It:
I went the easy route of buying prepared almond meal.
2 cups almond meal
2 egg whites
1.5 cups powdered confectioner's sugar
dash of powdered nutmeg

Separate the eggs. Stir the whites to a froth and discard the yolks.
Add the almond meal, sugar, and spice to a bowl.











Blend to a tacky batter.












Form into balls the size of a walnut.











Bake at 375* for 15 minutes.


Time to Complete: 
About 30 minutes

Total Cost: 
About $6.00 for the almond meal, the rest I had on hand. I had plenty of almond meal left for other tasty creations.

How Successful Was It: 
A terrific sweet treat, like coconut macaroons only better 'cause they aren't coconut. :-p

How Accurate Was It: 
I would say the ground meal would give a fair approximation of hand grinding, so fairly accurate.

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge: #4 "Foreign" Foods, part 1

The Challenge:
Make a dish that reflects the historical idea of "foreign"- either foods with a loose connection to foreign lands, named after faraway places, or attributed to foreigners.

A French Charlotte
Of the two principle kinds of charlotte, the unbaked charlottes are purported to have begun by Chef Marie-Antoin Careme of France. Chef Careme worked for the Prince Regent of England in the early 19th century and likely encountered a baked charlotte popular in the 18th century. He introduced the charlotte a la parisienne by 1802. While he was working for Tsar Alexander, the name changed to charlotte russe.
American bakers in New York City would put their own spin on the confection by the 1880s.

I first began researching charlottes for portraying a confectioner and exploring all the elegant made confections on a 19th century dessert table. For Americans looking to impress, the association with the classically fashionable French makes the French Charlotte a welcome finish to the dinner party or theatre supper.

The Recipe:
From: The Lady's Receipt Book; A Useful companion for large and small families by Eliza Leslie, 1847
A French Charlotte.
--Lay in a deep dish or pan half a pound of bitter almond maccaroons (chocolate maccaroons will be still better) and pour on sufficient white wine to cover them well, and let them stand till entirely dissolved. Whip to a stiff froth a pint of rich cream, sweetened with sugar and flavoured with rose or lemon. Have ready a large circular almond sponge cake with the inside cut out, so as to leave the sides and bottom standing in the form of a mould, not quite an inch thick. Ornament the edge with a handsome border of icing. In the bottom of this mould put the dissolved maccaroons; over them a layer of thick jelly, made of some very nice fruit; and fill up with the whipped cream, heaping it high in the centre.

This is a very fine Charlotte, and is easily made, no cooking being required, after the materials are collected.


The Date/Year and Region: 
Mid Atlantic United States, 1840-1870

How Did You Make It:
The first step was to collect the ingredients. I will confess here I bought the jelly, as mine is a disaster every time.
Humm... maccaroons, sponge cake, whipped cream... I have some preparation to do first.


Time to Complete:

Stay tuned. This is gonna take awhile. :-)

Part 2: Maccaroons
Part 3: Rice Sponge Cake
Part 4: Putting it together