I overheard my brother Darien and my mom talking about some dessert my mom used to make when we were kids, and I didn’t really pay attention until I heard one of them say Charlotte Russe. I don’t know, who says Charlotte Russe in an every day discussion? And then it REALLY caught my attention when my mom said Faux Charlotte Russe. So then I started to inquire…what recipe was this??…I don’t remember that!…You never made that…etc. But since my mom is right 99.9 percent of the time, I believed that she did indeed make this for us when we were kids. So I forced myself to ask my mom to tell me how she used to make it. Well, it turns out that I do vaguely remember it, and just like most things about my mom, it’s very creative and unique. PLEASE, don’t tell her I said that – she’d probably tell me she was right about that! Anyway, I made this the other night, and it’s good – not my favorite – but it’s good, creative and easy. Oh, by the way – I have no idea why she called it Charlotte Russe, since it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with “real” Charlotte Russe like Paula Deen’s recipe. But this is fun, so here are Ronnie’s instructions:
Ingredients:
3-4 apples, peeled and cut up
2 pears, peeled and cut up
1 loaf of spongy, white bread (like Wonder Bread) – you may never hear me say Wonder Bread again in this blog.
1-2 cups of fresh or frozen raspberries
about a stick (or more) butter
about a cup (or more) sugar
Vanilla Icecream to top the warm dessert
Instructions:
- In medium pan saute apples in butter and some sugar until tender and slightly browned (think the consistency of apples inside apple pie).
- Do the same with the pears.
- Set the raspberries aside in a bowl with some added sugar to them.
- Butter a rectangular casserole dish
- Put a stack of bread slices together and cut the crusts off so that you have evenly sized squares. Do this for the entire loaf.
- About 30 minutes before you want to eat the dessert, butter one side of each piece of bread.
- To the bottom of the rectangular pan, place squares together to line the bottom (like a puzzle) so there are no spaces. Don’t forget to put the butter sides up.
- Now add the apples as the first layer.
- The second “layer” is the pears.
- And the third layer – the raspberries.
- The top layer is the buttered bread – all lined up together with no spaces.
- Bake for about 20 minutes (uncovered) at 300.
- Cut in squares and serve warm with a scoop of vanilla bean icecream.
Have fun with it!
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