Strawberry Pistachio Charlotte: My Cute and Delicious Hobby!

I miss it !!!!!!!!!!! I can tell you that I really love to make all these, the cake or dessert that needs a lot of preparation (and time), well you can say that I'm crazy, haha.

Because I really fall in love with them, they are so cute and spending my time making them make me happy ^^. So the last time that I had a chance to stay home (now, I have to stay at my sister's house for a while, and it's not easy for me to bake and make all "a lot of things cake", like my friends use to call it, hehe) I ran to my bookshelf and tried to find something that I wanted to make.
And it's not hard for me to choose the right recipe (for me ^^), because I found "Strawberry Pistachio Charlotte or Charlotte aux fraises"on the cover of the book:.................. haha.
This charlotte has the pistachio joconde and jam as a side of the cake, the biscuits as a base and layer, soft strawberry mousse as a filling and a lot of strawberry for decoration (and  it's delicious too ^^).
I spent all of my afternoon for this dessert and felt so good, hehe, because I had a chance to do my hobby (I really want it to be my work instead, -*-), and the charlotte is very delicious and cute too.
Even though the recipe seems to be complicated it's not, actually if you don't want to spend all of your afternoon for this you can divide the work by preparing the biscuits, the joconde (and layer it), then the day before serving you will make only the mousse and decorate it before serving.
Hope you will enjoy, reading, looking and making this charlotte too, ^^. 

Strawberry Pistachio Charlotte

Make 18 cm cake

 BISCUIT JOCONDE PISTACHE 
use 24x34cm sheet pan
100g ............................... Almond powder 
100g ............................... Icing sugar
30g ................................. Cake flour
3 ...................................... Eggs
100g ............................... Egg whites 
20g ................................. Unsalted butter 
20g ................................. Sugar 
30g ................................. Pistachio paste
......................................... Green food coloring (optional)

BISCUITS À LA CUILLÈRE
2 ..................................... Egg whites 
2 ..................................... Egg yolks 
50g ................................. Sugar 
50g ................................. Cake flour 
20g ................................. Almond powder 
MOUSSE À LA FRAISE

- Base
140g ............................... Strawberry puree
9g .................................... Gelatin sheet
30g .................................  Sugar
200ml ............................ Whipping cream
......................................... Lemon juice (to taste)

-Meringue Italienne 

20g .................................. Egg whites

40g .................................. Granulated sugar

20g .................................. Water

SYRUP

40ml ............................... Simple syrup

2tbsp .............................. Crème de fraise

......................................... Strawberry jam

250g ............................... Fresh strawberry
......................................... Apricot glaze

Make BISCUITS À LA CUILLÈRE:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Using hand mixer, beat the egg white with sugar (add the sugar gradually) until stiff peaks form.

Pour the egg yolks into the egg white, beat with low speed for 1 minutes.

Sift the flour and almond powder into the bowl and fold to combine.

Put the batter into the piping bag with 1.5cm nozzle and pipe into 2 -16 cm round.

Bake for 17 minutes or until light golden.

Make BISCUIT JOCONDE PISTACHE :

Preheat the oven to 200 °C line the pan with baking paper.

Mix the almond powder, icing sugar, flour, pistachio paste and half of the egg together until smooth, mix in the rest of the egg (and the color if using), set aside.

Meanwhile, melt the butter, and set aside.

Put ¼cup of the pistachio batter into the melted butter, mix to combine, then pour the mixture back into the bowl.

Whip the egg white and sugar until firm peaks form.

Fold the meringue into the pistachio batter until combine, then pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Let the cake cool completely before starting the next step. 


Prepare the side and base of the charlotte:

Cut the cake into 4 stripes.

Brush the cake with syrup, then spread the jam on the cake, place another sponge on top, brush the cake with syrup, then spread the jam. Refrigerate for 2 hours before using.

Place 1 of the Biscuit round in the pan or cake ring, (you need to cut the biscuits into perfect round that small enough to put inside) cut the layers cake into 1 cm piece and line the side of the pan with the layers cake, cut to make a neat edge.

Sprinkle the syrup over the cake.

Make the strawberry mousse:

Bloom the gelatin with cold water, let the mixture stand for 5 minutes.

Put ⅓ of the strawberry puree into the pan with sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar melt.

Put the gelatin into the hot and stir to combine.

Pour the rest of the strawberry  into the strawberry 

and gelatin mixture and stir to combine.

Make the Italian meringue:

In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 100°C, start whisking the egg whites.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 117°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold.

Beat the cream until soft peak form. Then gently fold 1/3 of the cream into the strawberry mixture.

Gently fold back the strawberry and cream mixture into the cream. The mixture will be quite loose

Fold the Italian meringue into the strawberry mixture in 2 addition.

Fold to combine.

Pour half the mousse into the prepared mold.

Cover with another round biscuit, sprinkle with syrup, then pour the rest of the mousse and smooth the top.

Warp with plastic warp and refrigerate until firm.

To serve:

Decorate the Charlotte with strawberry and brush with apricot glaze.

Strawberry Pistachio Charlotte:

 My Cute and Delicious Hobby!