Serves 4
Pistachio Anglaise
6 yolks
1 cup whipping cream
1⁄2 cup milk
1⁄2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
1⁄3 cup plus 2 tablespoons toasted and ground pistachios
Vigorously mix the egg yolks and sugar together for 2 minutes. Heat the cream, milk, sugar, and scraped vanilla bean together until almost a simmer. Slowly pour the cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture and combine. Place mixture in a bowl that will fit atop a pot with a small amount of simmering water and stir with a wooden spoon until it coats the spoon. Then place bowl into a larger bowl of ice water and let anglaise cool, stirring occasionally. Remove the vanilla bean and add the 1⁄3 cup of chopped pistachios.
Charlottes
2 Gala apples peeled and cut into medium dice
1 cup dried sour cherries
1 cup white dessert wine of your choice
1 loaf Very Thin Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread
4 ounces softened butter
1⁄3 cup granulated sugar
Place diced apples and cherries in a pot. Add 1 cup dessert wine and 1 cup water and simmer for 8 minutes. Strain the fruit, leaving the liquid in the pot, and set aside. Remove 16 cherries and add them back into the liquid and reduce to a syrupy consistency. (This syrup and cherries will form a compote that will garnish the finished charlotte.) Next, brush the inside of a porcelain ramekin with a thick coat of butter. Put sugar in the ramekin and roll the ramekin so that the sugar coats the entire inside of the dish but empties out into the next ramekin. Repeat this process until all the ramekins are coated with sugar. Next cut 8 round pieces of bread with a circle cutter the same size as the bottom of the ramekin. Then cut rectangular strips to line the sides of the ramekin. (Do a test fit before cutting them all.) Brush the rectangles and circles with butter and place the butter side against the ramekins’ bottoms and sides. Fill the center with the poached apples and cherries. Next top the fruit with one more circle of bread buttered side up making the equivalent of a bread hat box. Bake the ramekins in a preheated 375-degree oven for about 15 minutes. They are done when the bread is golden brown and has pulled away from the sides.
Remove charlottes from ramekins and garnish the tops with the cherry compote mixture. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of pistachios on top. With either a whisk or hand-held blender aerate the anglaise and drizzle around the charlotte to serve.
