Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (192 page)

3)
Assembling and serving

A long knife for splitting the
brioche,
a small knife and a grapefruit knife for hollowing it out

A tray to hold syrup drippings

A serving dish

Optional: A canvas pastry bag with round, cannelated tube opening, for making decorative lines of whipped cream on top of cake

Slice off the top quarter of the
brioche,
making a cover about ¾ inch thick; cut into 6 to 8 pie-shaped wedges, and place upside down on rack over tray. Hollow out remaining part of
brioche,
first outlining a circle in its top surface ¾ inch from edge all around the inside, and to within ¾ inch of bottom. Then remove interior by bits, with grapefruit knife, to make the
brioche
into a container ¾ inch thick at sides and bottom.

Set
brioche
container hollowed-side up on serving dish. Drain the strawberries, adding their juices to the syrup. Pour successive spoonfuls of tepid syrup gradually over
briochè,
letting it absorb as much liquid as it will. At the same time, pour
spoonfuls of syrup over the upside-down cover wedges. Fold the berries into the
crème Chantilly.
Paint outer sides of
brioche
container with warm apricot glaze; turn the strawberries and cream into it, heaping the filling into a dome.

Handling them carefully, set the
brioche
wedges in place on top of the filling, letting their pointed ends rise to a peak at the center. Paint tops of wedges with warm apricot glaze. If you have decided to make whipped cream decorations, whip the reserved
Chantilly
over ice until it is a little stiffer, so that it will hold its shape when squeezed out; fold in 2 tablespoons of sifted confectioner’s sugar and a few drops of vanilla. Fill in gaps between wedges with ribbons of whipped cream. Just before serving, decorate top of
Le Marly
with the reserved strawberries. To serve, cut right down between wedges, from top to bottom of cake.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: May be assembled an hour or two before serving; cover with a bowl, and refrigerate.

Other fruits

Instead of fresh strawberries, use raspberries, sliced fresh peaches, blueberries, frozen strawberries (thawed), a mixture of pineapple and bananas, or the
apricot filling
, which you could combine with diced bananas and toasted, slivered almonds. You may macerate the fruit in sugar, rum, or kirsch, if you wish, then stir the maceration into the sugar syrup.

CHARLOTTE JAMAÏQUE EN FLAMMES

[Rum-cake Caramel Custard, Flambée]

This is another
riposte
to the Anglo-Saxons, a French plum pudding of rum-soaked
brioche
or sponge cake, raisins, fruits, and custard baked in a caramelized mold and brought flaming to the table. A fine holiday dessert, it may be made ready for the oven hours before baking, and that takes about an hour.

For a 6-cup mold, serving 6 to 8

1)
Preparing the fruits

4 ounces (¾ cup, packed down) currants (small, black, seedless raisins)

Either
4 ounces (¾ cup) each of glacéed cherries and apricots;

Or
8 ounces (1½ cups) mixed diced glacéed fruits

1 cup dark Jamaica rum in a covered bowl

Drop the raisins into a pan of boiling water, and set aside to swell and soften while preparing rest of fruit. If using cherries and apricots, cut cherries in half, and drop in boiling water to wash off preservatives; drain, and set on a plate. Dice the apricots, drop in boiling water, drain, and set on another plate. (If using mixed fruits, drop in boiling water, and drain.) Then drain raisins, squeeze out accumulated moisture, and steep in the rum until you are ready to use them.

2)
Caramelizing the mold

½ cup sugar and 3 Tb water in a small, heavy saucepan

A cover for the pan

A 6-cup cylindrical mold, such as a charlotte or ceramic baking dish at least 3½ inches deep

A plate upon which mold may be reversed

Set sugar and water over moderately high heat, and swirl pan slowly by its handle (but do not stir sugar with a spoon) while liquid is coming to the boil. Continue swirling for a moment as liquid boils and turns from cloudy to perfectly clear. Cover pan, raise heat to high, and boil several minutes, until bubbles are thick and heavy. Uncover and continue boiling, swirling gently, until sugar turns a nice caramel brown.

Immediately pour the caramel into the mold (reserve caramel pan); turn mold in all directions to film bottom and sides, and continue turning slowly for a minute or so, until caramel ceases to run. Turn mold upside down over plate.

3)
The custard sauce

1 cup milk

3 eggs

⅔ cup sugar

A 3-quart mixing bowl and electric beater or large wire whip

2 tsp vanilla extract

A clean 2½- to 3-quart enameled or stainless saucepan

A wooden spoon

A fine-meshed sieve

Pour the milk into the caramel-cooking pan, and stir over heat to dissolve caramel. Then beat eggs and sugar in mixing bowl for several minutes until pale and foamy; beat in the vanilla. Finally, in a thin stream of droplets, beat in the hot milk. Pour mixture into clean saucepan, and set over moderate heat; stir slowly with wooden spoon, reaching all over bottom of pan, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until custard thickens enough to film spoon with a creamy layer. (Be careful sauce does not come to the simmer and curdle the eggs, but you must heat it to the point where it thickens.)