Cut eighteen fine peaches into small pieces, and boil them with half a pound of sugar. When they are reduced to a marmalade, squeeze them through a sieve or colander. Then add half a package of dissolved gelatine, and a glassful of good cream. Stir it well, to make it smooth when it is about to set, then add the pint of cream whipped, and mold it. It makes a still prettier dish to serve halves or quarters of fresh peaches half frozen, around the cream.
Bavarian Cream, with Pine-apple.
Cut a pine-apple into fine pieces; boil it with one half-pound, or a coffee-cupful of sugar; pass the marmalade through a sieve or colander; turn off part of the juice; add half a package of dissolved gelatine. Stir, and add the pint of cream whipped, as before described. Mold it.
Bavarian Cream, with Coffee.
Throw three heaping table-spoonfuls of fresh roasted and ground Mocha coffee into a pint of boiling rich milk. Make a strong infusion, strain it, and add to it the whipped yolks of four eggs well beaten, with an even cupful of sugar. Stir the custard over the fire until it begins to thicken; take it off the fire, and add to it, while still hot, half a box of gelatine which has been standing an hour on the hearth to dissolve in a little cold water. When just beginning to set, stir it well to make it smooth, then add the pint of cream whipped. Mold it.
Charlotte-russe.
The sponge-cake may be made with four eggs, one cupful of sugar, one and one-half cupfuls of flour, and two even tea-spoonfuls of yeast powder, or as described for sponge jelly-cake ([see page 300]).
To make an even sheet, professional cooks pass the cake batter through the méringue bag on a large sheet of foolscap paper in rows which touch each other, and which run together smoothly when baking; or, without the méringue bag, it may be spread over the sheet as evenly as possible. When baked, an oval piece is cut to fit the bottom of the charlotte pan, then even-sized parallelograms are cut to fit around the sides. Fill with cream made as follows: Whip one pint of cream flavored with vanilla to a stiff froth, and add to it the well-beaten whites of two eggs, and one half-pound of pulverized sugar; mix it all lightly and carefully together. Fill the charlotte pan, or pans, and put them into the ice-chest to set.
This is the best and simplest manner of making a charlotte-russe. Many take the trouble to add gelatine, which is unnecessary. Professor Blot made the filling of his charlotte-russe of sweetened and flavored whipped cream only. It will harden without difficulty if placed upon the ice, and it is very delicate; yet the whites of eggs are an improvement. If there is only enough cake at hand to fit the sides of the pan, put a paper in the bottom of the mold cut to fit it, and the charlotte can be served without a top.
These charlottes are very prettily decorated on top with icing squeezed through a small-sized funnel; or, you may pour a transparent icing over the whole, and make the decoration over this with the common icing. Sometimes they are made in little molds, one charlotte for each plate, and, again, a large charlotte is decorated with a circle of strawberries around it.