Plum Clafoutis!
OMG! How could I not have told you about clafoutis yet? If you have ripe plums, peaches, apricots… any stonefruit… and you need something to do with them, this is it! Clafoutis (clow-FOO-tee) is a baked dessert (or breakfast!) that is simple to make and absolutely yummy. Ripe fruit, especially those that are a little too ripe to eat fresh because of the texture, is topped with a flour and custard batter and baked.
The result is firm enough to not gross out those who don’t like the texture of custard (like my daughter), not too sweet, and makes the flavor of the fruit bloom in your mouth. This is different than Plummy Skillet Cake, which is also wonderful. Of course clafoutis
is good with ice cream, but just powdered sugar on top for decoration or plain is fine. You can make it with liquid egg substitute and non-dairy milk substitutes; I used our hen’s eggs and organic soy milk. Plums are absolutely delicious in a clafoutis, but we’ve used peaches and apricots as well with great results.
- (You can halve the ingredients and bake in a square pan instead)
- ¼ cup butter (or veg oil or coconut butter)
- Pitted plums cut into thin wedges (think what size you like to bite into) (five cups)(you can use a mixture of stonefruit, too)
- ½ cup granulated sugar, divided (you can eliminate or reduce this amount if you like a tart dessert, if your fruit is very sweet, or use a sugar substitute)
- 4 eggs or equivalent liquid egg substitute
- ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour (or a mix of other flours)
- ½ teaspoon salt (opt)
- 1 cup milk or milk substitute
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- Confectioner's sugar for dusting
- Move oven rack to the middle and heat to 400F.
- Place butter in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and put in oven to melt butter.
- In a medium bowl, toss the plums with ¼ cup sugar.
- With oven mitts, remove hot dish from oven and swirl melted butter to coat bottom and partially up the sides.
- Spread plums evenly on bottom of baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until blended.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining ¼ cup sugar with the flour and salt.
- Whisk the sugar and flour mixture into the eggs.
- Whisk in the milk, vanilla and almond extracts.
- Pour the batter evenly over the plums.
- Bake 40 - 45 minutes until the clafoutis is lightly browned and the center has puffed up.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve warm, plain or with ice cream. Or hard sauce. Or whatever you like. Use a French accent when announcing dessert.
- Eat within a couple of days or it becomes soggy.
- Store covered at room temperature.