Charlotte de Pommes (Apple Charlotte)

Ingredients

• 12 fine reinette apples
• 30 grammes butter
• 2 spoonfuls caster sugar
• Half a lemon zest
• A little cinnamon
• 3 spoonfuls apricot marmalade
• Pain de mie
• Melted butter (for the mould and the bread)
• Sauce Abricot (served separately)

Instructions

1. Butter generously a Charlotte mould holding one litre.
2. Cut hearts of pain de mie 4 millimètres thick, dip them in melted butter and line the bottom of the mould with them, overlapping slightly.
3. Cut rectangles of bread 4 millimètres thick and exactly the height of the mould, dip them in melted butter and line the sides in the same way.
4. Separately, quarter, peel and thinly slice 12 fine reinette apples and cook them in a sautoir with 30 grammes of butter, 2 spoonfuls of caster sugar, half a chopped lemon zest and a little cinnamon.
5. When they are cooked down to a very thick marmalade, add 3 spoonfuls of apricot marmalade.
6. Fill the mould with this composition, heaping it above the rim in a dome, as it settles and shrinks in cooking.
7. Cover with a thinly cut round of crumb of bread dipped in melted butter.
8. Bake in a good medium oven for 30 to 35 minutes.
9. Turn the Charlotte out onto the serving dish as it comes from the oven and serve a Sauce Abricot separately.