Romantic and delicate, this ‘Rose and Strawberry Charlotte’ is delightful.
I’m always inspired by my travels, on my most recent trip to Paris with my sister, we couldn’t resist bringing back these Biscuit Rose de Reims (Pink Biscuit of Reims), despite having zero space in our luggage. Aneesa lugged these in her hand, making sure they didn’t get crushed through, check-in, passport control, security and boarding.
It was worth it! The dessert turned out exactly as I envisioned when I spotted the pack of biscuits.
History of the Biscuit Rose de Reims (Pink Biscuit of Reims)
The Biscuit Rose dates from the 1690s. At this time, bakers of the champagne region anxious to use the heat of their oven after cooking bread, had the idea of creating a special dough which, after having been cooked once, was left in the bread oven where it finished drying. Hence the origin of the word BIS-CUIT : ie cooked twice. (source; foster.com)
You could make your own version of these using a Biscuit Cuillére recipe, just add pink food colour.
P.S. You won’t find an image of the cut Rose & Strawberry Charlotte, I’m saving these for my next tea party. They are tightly wrapped and safely stored in my freezer.
Rose & Strawberry Charlotte
Pistachio Joconde
125g icing sugar
65g ground almonds
65g ground pistachios
35g cake flour
125g egg
55g melted butter
105g egg whites
20g castor sugar
Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Line a large baking sheet 38cm x 26cm with baking paper, spray lightly..
Using a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat the icing sugar, ground almonds, ground pistachios, cake flour and eggs until light and fluffy.
Fold through the melted butter gently.
Meanwhile, in a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites and castor sugar until firm peaks form.
Fold the egg whites through the cake batter gently.
Spread the batter into prepared tray and bake for 10 minutes or until light brown in colour.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then freeze the sponge for 4 hours or overnight.
Rose Syrup
150g water
45g sugar
1 Tblsp rose water
In a small saucepan on medium heat, bring the water and sugar to a boil, boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the rose water. Pour the syrup into a large shallow bowl.
Strawberry Cheesecake
320g strawberries (puréed & strained)
250g cream cheese (room temp)
100g sugar
30g fish gelatine mass (melted)
225g lightly whipped cream
In a stand mixer fitter with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, sugar and strawberry purée until smooth and creamy. Add the fish gelatine and mix. Gently fold in the lightly whipped cream in two additions.
Rose Mousse
1 cup milk
50g sugar
40g fish gelatine mass
70g white Chocolate (melted)
1 Tblsp rose water
a few drops of rose essence
a few drops of pink food colour
375g whipping cream
Heat the milk and sugar in a medium saucepan, bring to simmer. Remove from the heat, add the fish gelatine and mix to melt. Pour the mixture over the melted chocolate, add the rosewater, pink food colour, rose essence and blend using a stick blender. Cover the surface with clingwrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Whisk the whipping cream to soft peaks and fold into the rose mixture.
To assemble
Line the base of 3 x 16cm or 1 x 22cm entremet ring with cling wrap. Place on a tray.
Dip one side of the biscuit very lightly in rose syrup and stand the biscuit un-dipped side out, repeat until you have a row of dipped biscuits to line the inside of the pastry ring.
Remove the pistachio jocund from the freezer and cut a circle to fit inside the biscuits, covering the base of the entremet ring and another one 2cm smaller.
Place the large sponge in the base of your ring and brush generously with rose syrup.
Pour the strawberry cheesecake filling over the base of pistachio joconde, place the smaller sponge over the cheesecake and brush with rose syrup. Freeze for 2 hours.
Once set, remove from the freeazer and pour the rose mousse over. Freeze overnight.
The next day, remove the dessert from the freezer, remove the ring, decorate with berries. Allow the Rose & Raspberry Charlotte to defrost for 2 hours in the fridge before serving.
***If you are making 3 mini cakes as I did, cut the joconde for 3 desserts, divide the filling and mousse into 3 equal parts and layer accordingly.
