Yesterday, I spent the evening with friends preparing a hen party. And as usual, I volunteered to make the dessert. I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was going to make. Then I came across the latest recipe from the blog La popotte de Manue: a chocolate charlotte, which I absolutely wanted to reproduce. It’s made up of ladyfinger sponges and a chocolate bavarian mousse. It’s a fairly simple dessert to make.
How do you make homemade ladyfingers?
I had to lighten my workload because my back is still very sore, so I didn’t make the ladyfingers myself (but I obviously recommend it). In fact, next time, I’ll make cocoa-flavoured ladyfingers; that will be perfect for a chocolate charlotte.
To make ladyfingers, I’ll refer you to the recipe which is here. If you’d like to try the chocolate version, simply replace 10 g of flour with 10 g of unsweetened cocoa powder.
How do you make a chocolate bavarian mousse?
And to make this charlotte, I wanted to make a chocolate bavarois, as on the blog La popotte de Manue (online, you find charlottes based on chocolate mousse, but I wanted to try something new). The bavarois is very simple to make and very good! The texture is magnificent and the chocolate flavour isn’t too pronounced, so my other half loved it!
I did make one change, though. A bavarois is generally made up of a crème anglaise, to which gelatine is added, combined with whipped cream. Here, for a chocolate bavarois, you add chocolate pieces to it. The recipe I was inspired by used unsweetened cocoa powder, but I don’t like using that product as a replacement for chocolate (it’s not chocolate, after all), so I went with another recipe.
Ingredients & preparation
3 components · Full recipe
Chocolate Bavarian Cream
Ingredients
- 300 g (10.6 oz) milk
- 75 g (2.6 oz) sugar
- 90 g (3.2 oz) egg yolks
- 225 g (7.9 oz) dark chocolate
- 45 cl (15.2 fl oz) full-fat double cream
- 9 g (0.3 oz) gelatine
Preparation
1
Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soften.
2
Whip the double cream to soft peaks and keep the whipped cream in the fridge.
3
Make the crème anglaise. Gently heat the milk over low heat, stirring from time to time.
4
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale.
5
When the milk comes to a boil, pour it in a thin stream over the egg-sugar mixture and whisk well. Pour everything back into the saucepan and cook to the nappe stage (84°C / 183°F), never allowing it to boil and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. If you don’t have a thermometer, the crème anglaise is ready when it coats the back of the spoon.
6
Add the squeezed gelatine and then the chocolate to the hot crème anglaise. Cover for a few minutes to allow the chocolate to melt, then stir well.
7
Once the crème anglaise has cooled to lukewarm (it will have the consistency of a dessert cream), fold in 1/4 of the whipped cream using a whisk, then fold in the remainder all at once. Mix well.
8
Set aside on the worktop for a few minutes while you assemble the charlotte.
Syrup
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) sugar
- 125 g (4.4 oz) water
- rum (optional)
Preparation
1
Place the water and sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then leave to cool.
2
Once the syrup is cold, take 100 g (3.5 oz) and mix it with 10 g (0.4 oz) of rum.
Assembly
Ingredients
- 300 g (10.6 oz) ladyfinger biscuits
Preparation
1
Arrange the ladyfinger biscuits around the sides and base of a springform tin.
2
Generously brush the base of the charlotte with the syrup.
3
Pour the Bavarian cream into the tin. Once you have poured a layer, you can add some of the remaining biscuits soaked in syrup. Pour in the rest of the Bavarian cream and freeze for 3 hours.
4
Remove the frozen charlotte, unmould it and decorate with chocolate shavings.
5
Leave it to come back to temperature slowly in the fridge. Ideally, make it the day before and serve the next day.
Gallery
