Strawberry-Rhubarb Charlotte
This simple, yet stunning dessert is the perfect pick for a spring celebration. It incorporates two of the season’s finest fruits into a heavenly mousse surrounded by ladyfingers. What’s not to love?!
You may have never eaten a charlotte before (we hadn’t), but you may have seen pictures of this fantastical dessert. The original, charlotte russe, was said to have been created and named by French chef, Marie-Antoine Carême, for Princess Charlotte, the daughter of his former employer, King George IV, and his employer at the time, Czar Alexander I.
A charlotte is a molded dessert. A pan is lined with ladyfingers, bread, or spongecake, then filled with fruit, mousse, Bavarian cream, custard, or any combination of them. Though this dessert looks complicated, as if it could only be created by a pastry chef, it’s deceptively simple, and we all know looks can be deceiving.
This charlotte consists of three main, but simple, parts: Lining a springform pan with crisp ladyfingers that have been dipped in an orange-flavored syrup. Cooking strawberries and rhubarb with sugar until tender, stabilizing with gelatin, and folding in whipped cream to create the mousse. Then, topping off the charlotte with a glaze made of fruit juices for a beautiful, jewel-like finish.
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