We'll be heading to a Memorial Day BBQ on Sunday, and I've been day dreaming of making a Charlotte Russe, and I've been waiting for an excuse to make one.
Charlotte Russe was my dad's favorite type of cake. I do not believe we ever served one for his birthday even once. Dad died the year I turned 40, so that's a lot of birthdays to go without a favorite cake--and now, every time I make one, I think of dad.
I have all the components at home for this, and I'm trying to just keep it simple and not add too many layers to it, but I could easily "trick it out," but will keep it relatively--I SAID RELATIVELY!, simple.
I am on a passion fruit kick these days, so of course, that's going to feature into things. And a great friend gave me a nice fat mango which I've been waiting for it to ripen up sufficiently to use.
A Charlotte Russe typically uses those soft spongey lady fingers. In my case, I was planning on using slices of strawberry jelly roll Little Debbie cakes. I'm going to line a bowl with the slices, then layer the dessert in the bowl, which will be the mold for the dessert. But after careful consideration it looks like I'll need to heat up my kitchen after all, and bake a jelly roll.
Also worth noting, that there are aspects of this dessert which remind me of Kalakand. Given that the BBQ is hosted by friend of ours who happen to be from India, I think this dessert might be a huge hit.
I don't plan on heating up the oven, so it's just a matter of assembling things. My ingredient list is relatively short:
1 Box lemon Jello (I'm going to use sugar free)
1 Can sweetened condensed milk
Passion fruit puree
Diced mango
Strawberry jam
A store bought or homemade jelly roll
If needed: Soft spongey lady fingers
Optional: Lime zest or rosewater
The assemblage is pretty easy and obvious.
Line a bowl with saran wrap and layer the entire bowl with slices of the jelly roll, trying not to leave any gaps. If possible, put in freezer so the slices will stay in place.
Apply a thin coat of guava jam on the slices.
Mix up lemon jello with 3/4 cup boiling water to dissolve. Add 1/2 cup passion fruit puree. Thoroughly blend in one can of sweetened condensed milk. Add in lime zest or about a teaspoon of rosewater at this point if you're into that kind of thing.
Pour into prepared bowl lined with jelly roll slices. Apply an even layer of mango cubes at this point.
Apply a layer (I am going to apply them like spokes on a bicycle wheel) of the spongey lady fingers to the top (which will become the bottom when the Charlotte Russe is dislodged). Wrap in cling wrap and put in fridge overnight to set up.
The hard part for me is to just know when to stop gilding the lily, because I could easily add more layers to this (namely a layer of raspberry jello studded with cubes of white dragon fruit). Maharajah weighed in on this, and the dragon fruit will have to wait for another day.
The original plan was to use Little Debbie strawberry shortcake rolls in this recipe; however, after opening the box, they're not as jammy as I'd like, and they are really incredibly too sweet too. Also? They look like they'd just crush and squish if I tried to slice cross sections of each.
I've decided to make my own jelly roll to slice up to be used in this Charlotte. I've decided to use guava jelly, too. Took some doing for me to find some Grace brand guava jelly, as I refuse to give Goya one red penny of my money.
So that's the plan, a guava jelly roll, with a passion fruit and mango kalkakand inspired filling--which pretty much is a blanc mange in French cuisine, or panna cotta in Italian cuisine.
I plan on using a boxed cake mix (sugar free) for the sponge, and will be making the following ingredient adjustment:
6 eggs (which I might separate, whip the whites a bit, and mix the yolks with the butter and other ingredients, so try to make it sufficiently spongey).
1/4 Cup water
1/4 Cup oil or ghee
375 preheated oven, and will bake about 13-15 minutes in a half a sheet tray, lined with parchment to make the rolling easier. I'll keep an eye on it pretty closely as I don't want the edges of the cake to get overcooked, they'll be too rigid to roll up, and I don't want to waste one bit of this cake.
5/26/2022: Tonight I'll probably make the jelly roll so it'll be cold and firm and ready to slice tomorrow night for the actual assembly.
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