CIARLOTTA (CHARLOTTE)

Charlotte is a 19th century recipe, possibly named after the Queen of England. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Streliz (1744-1818) was married to King George III, a patroness of botany & fine arts, devoted to charity, and the mother of 15 children. She was a close friend of Marie-Antoinette and greatly shaken by the events in France. She became even more depressed after the King's mental health deteriorated beyond hope of recovery, losing her appetite for company and -eventually- the good opinion of her subjects. Some food historians believe that charlotte, which is a pudding filled with custard or mashed fruit,  was named after her grand-daughter.

Queen Charlotte in 1812

The Princess of Wales, aged 5

From charlet... 
Another interesting theory proposes that charlotte is derived from the Old English word charlet/charlyt/charlot, meaning 'a custard dish'. In The Forme of Cury, there is a recipe named charlet, which is made by cooking hashed pork with milk & saffron. (Char+let=meat+milk in Old French.) It's followed by charlot yforced (=stuffed charlet), in which the pudding is enhanced with yolks, sugar & flour.  Although charlotte is not a savoury dish, it's not impossible to believe that it evolved from charlet -especially the version using breadcrumbs.

... to charlotte...

The 'king of chefs and chef of kings' Marie-Antoine Carême, who served George IV for a time, includes no less than 10 variations of charlotte in The royal Parisian pastrycook and confectioner. It was he that created a recipe for the Princess of Wales. Each of his charlottes used a different base -sponge cake or ladyfingers. The fillings also varied: there were charlottes with almonds or pistachios and charlottes stuffed with apples, pippins, apricots or peaches but the more elegant variations were filled with custard. Charlotte à la russe, named after Charlotte of Prussia (1798-1860) who had married Tsar Alexander I's brother, used ladyfingers and Bavarian cream. Charlotte à l'italienne was also drenched in rum. 

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia) in 1856

...and ciarlotta

Charlotte à l'italienne was probably a French idea but the dessert was beautifully adapted for the Italian table by  Pellegrino Artusi. His recipe from Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well that was published in 1891, is both quick to prepare and delicious to taste: "Make a custard with 200g milk, 30g sugar, 15g flour, 1 egg, a dash of lemon zest. Make a syrup with 200g water, 50g sugar. Boil the syrup for 10 minutes. When cooled, add the juice of a lemon. Fill a nicely decorated pudding mold with 300g of sliced sponge cake or ladyfingers, fruit preserves and the custard. Pour in the syrup to soak. Allow it to set for several hours before taking it out of the mold and serving it. This recipe serves 8 people."

CIARLOTTA (CHARLOTTE)
This version is slightly adapted from Pellegrino Artusi's recipe: sponge cake or ladyfingers are replaced with panettone. As it's supposed to be an Italian charlotte, I used zucchini & almonds in the filling.

I n g r e d i e n t s

300g panettone

for the custard:

200ml milk

50g sugar

1tbsp flour

1 egg

1 tsp lemon zest

for the syrup:

200ml water

50g sugar

2tbsp lemon juice

for the filling:

120g zucchini preserve

60g almonds

M e t h o d

1. Slice the panettone very thinly. Use 1/2 of the slices to line a buttered pudding mold. 2a. For the custard: Whisk the sugar, flour and egg in a bowl, gradually adding the milk and lemon zest. Transfer to a saucepan and heat the mixture gently until it reaches boiling point, stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon. 2b. For the syrup: Boil the water and sugar for 10 minutes. Leave to cool before adding the lemon juice. 3. Fill the mold with alternating layers of custard, preserve, almonds &  1/4 of the sliced panettone. Use the remaining slices to cover the filling. 4. Pour the syrup all over and leave for several hours to drench. 5. Unmold, cut into wedges and serve. Keep any leftover pudding in the refrigerator, under a cake dome.