Julia Child - Un Par Un: CHARLOTTE JAMAQUE EN FLAMMES 🌞

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CHARLOTTE JAMAÏQUE EN FLAMMES
[Rum-cake Caramel Custard, Flambée]

This is another riposte to the Anglo-Saxons, a French plum
pudding of rum-soaked brioche or sponge cake, raisins, fruits, and
custard baked in a caramelized mold and brought flaming to the
table. A fine holiday dessert, it may be made ready for the oven
hours before baking, and that takes about an hour.

For a 6-cup mold, serving 6 to 8

1) Preparing the fruits

4 ounces (¾ cup, packed down) currants (small,
black, seedless raisins)
Either 4 ounces (¾ cup) each of glacéed
cherries and apricots;
Or 8 ounces (1½ cups) mixed diced glacéed fruits
1 cup dark Jamaica rum in a covered bowl

Drop the raisins into a pan of boiling
water, and set aside to swell and
soften while preparing rest of fruit. If
using cherries and apricots, cut
cherries in half, and drop in boiling
water to wash off preservatives;
drain, and set on a plate. Dice the
apricots, drop in boiling water, drain,
and set on another plate. (If using
mixed fruits, drop in boiling water,
and drain.) Then drain raisins,
squeeze out accumulated moisture,
and steep in the rum until you are
ready to use them.

****

2) Caramelizing the mold

½ cup sugar and 3 Tb water in a small,
heavy saucepan
A cover for the pan
A 6-cup cylindrical mold, such as a charlotte or
ceramic baking dish at least 3½ inches deep
A plate upon which mold may be reversed



A Charlotte Pan


Another Charlotte Pan

Set sugar and water over moderately high heat, and swirl pan slowly by its
handle (but do not stir sugar with a spoon) while liquid is coming to the
boil. Continue swirling for a moment as liquid boils and turns from cloudy
to perfectly clear. Cover pan, raise heat to high, and boil several
minutes, until bubbles are thick and heavy. Uncover and continue boiling,
swirling gently, until sugar turns a nice caramel brown.

Immediately pour the caramel into the mold (reserve caramel
pan); turn mold in all directions to film bottom and sides, and
continue turning slowly for a minute or so, until caramel ceases to
run. Turn mold upside down over plate.



****

3) The custard sauce

1 cup milk
3 eggs
⅔ cup sugar
A 3-quart mixing bowl and electric beater or
large wire whip
2 tsp vanilla extract
A clean 2½- to 3-quart enameled or stainless saucepan
A wooden spoon
A fine-meshed sieve

Pour the milk into the caramel cooking pan, and stir over heat to
dissolve caramel. Then beat eggs and sugar in mixing bowl for several
minutes until pale and foamy; beat in the vanilla. Finally, in a thin stream
of droplets, beat in the hot milk. Pour mixture into clean saucepan, and set
over moderate heat; stir slowly with wooden spoon, reaching all over
bottom of pan, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until custard thickens enough to film
spoon with a creamy layer. (Be careful sauce does not come to the
simmer and curdle the eggs, but you must heat it to the point where it
thickens.

Remove from heat, and stir vigorously a moment or two to cool
the sauce and stop the cooking. Rinse out mixing bowl, and strain
the sauce into it.



****

4) Filling the mold

A pan of boiling water large enough to hold
dessert mold easily
About 1 pound of brioche, sponge cake, or store-bought
sponge-type of cake

(Preheat oven to 350 degrees for next
step.) Check water level of pan with
mold set into it, and place pan
(without mold) in lower-middle level
of oven. Slice brioche or cake into 3
layers, each about ⅛ inch thick, and
trim so they will fit into the mold
exactly. (Each layer may consist of
several pieces neatly fitted together.)

Fit a layer of cake in the bottom of the caramelized mold. Drain
the raisins and sprinkle 3 tablespoons of their rum maceration over
the cake. Arrange a row of cherry halves (or mixed diced fruit)
around the edge of the cake, and spread a third of the raisins and
apricots (or more diced mixed fruit) over the rest of the cake. Pour
in a third of the custard. Put down a second layer of cake, sprinkle
with 3 tablespoons more rum, and continue filling the mold in
layers. Leave about ¼ inch of unfilled space at top of mold because
dessert will swell slightly during cooking. Cover remaining rum and
reserve for flambéeing.

(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE:

Mold may be filled a day in advance of baking; cover airtight and
refrigerate. Chilled custard will probably take at least 20 minutes
more to bake than the 45 to 60 minutes specified in Step 5.

****

5) Baking the dessert—

45 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees, plus a
10-minute rest (longer if custard has been chilled)

Place the filled mold in the pan of hot water in the oven (water
should come ¾ the way up outside of mold). Bake for 45 minutes to
1 hour, regulating heat so that water in pan almost but never quite
bubbles—to ensure a smooth and velvety texture to the custard. Add
more boiling water, as necessary, if liquid drops below the halfway
mark. Dessert is done when it begins to show a faint line of
shrinkage from sides of mold.

If you wish to serve within 10 to 15 minutes, remove mold from
water and allow custard to settle for 10 minutes before unmolding,
Step 6; otherwise leave custard in its pan of water in turned-off
oven. Dessert must be hot for successful flambéeing.

****

6) Unmolding, flambéeing, and serving

A thin-bladed flexible knife for help in unmolding
A very hot, lightly buttered serving platter
3 or 4 broken sugar lumps and 1 Tb sugar
The remaining rum (at least ½ cup) in a small saucepan
Matches
A pair of long-handled serving utensils

The moment before serving, run knife around edge of mold, turn hot
platter upside down over it, and reverse the two to unmold dessertne
dessert as you begin to serve.

Recipe From "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking Vol.2 "
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/132692.Mastering_the_Art_of_French_Cooking


Enjoy this superlative and celebratory holiday cake!

Hint: An organized & clean kitchen is a requirement for French cuisine! You'll need
all the space you've got!! (Not to mention all the pans you own!)