Exquisite Clafoutis Recipe

A delicious traditional recipe, very simple and quick to make. There are no techniques or tricks, everything is done at once. The clafoutis batter is made with seasonal fruits, sweet, tangy and juicy. It is not very aesthetic, but it is so greedy…

To make it a success, you have to cover the fruit with the batter but let their peaks untouched. Do not pour any more, otherwise the clafoutis will be heavy. The fruit must always take precedence over the quantity of batter.

Quantity for a large gratin dish (33 × 20 × 5 cm, 16 to 20 servings):

• 1 kg cherries, apricots or other tangy fruits,
• 150 g blond caster cane sugar (135 g for cherries),
• 150 g all-purpose wheat flour T65 type (135 g for cherries),
• 45 cl full-fat milk (or 30 cl of milk and 15 cl of whole liquid cream (40 cl for cherries),
• 210 g eggs (crack and weigh 4 to 5 eggs without the shells) (185 g or 3.5 eggs for the cherries),
• 1 small tonka bean (1 g maximum) to be grated (the best combination), or 4.5 g powdered vanilla or 15 ml liquid vanilla extract (1 g / 4 g / 13 ml for cherries),
• Butter or margarine for the mould.

Fruit selection

If the fruit is very sweet, the amount of caster sugar can be reduced by 10%.

Cherry: wash, dry and stone the cherries. Keep the stones or not. The stones bring a bitter almond taste. Adjust the quantity of dough by removing 10% of the proportion. The cherries are heavier, you need 10% less dough and therefore reduce the baking time by 3 minutes.

Apricot, plum: cut them in half, stone them and powder the flesh of the fruit with a little sugar before making the dough.

Acid apple, pear or pineapple: peel and slice them.

Raspberry or other tangy berries: divide the quantities at least by two so that only one layer of fruit is visible. The thickness of the dough will be thin and the cooking will be faster, around 30 minutes or less. And why not, divide the quantities by three and cook in a 24 cm frying pan, buttered, over medium/hot heat for about 20 minutes.

Course of the recipe:

Pour all the dough ingredients into a large bowl: sugar, flour, milk, eggs and tonka or vanilla. Blend everything in a hand blender for 2 to 3 minutes to obtain a smooth dough without lumps (like a pancake batter).

Butter the gratin dish, place the fruit in it, then pour the batter over the fruit. Let the tops of the fruits appear and stop pouring the remaining batter. If there is too much dough, the clafoutis will be heavy. Put the rest of the dough aside (it can be stored for 2 days in the refrigerator) or make a small clafoutis with other fruits. You can also make pancakes with the rest.

In a preheated oven, bake the clafoutis for about 40 to 45 minutes at 170° in a fan-assisted oven or 180° in a convection oven. If the quantities are halved, bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Times depend on the thickness. When lightly browned and barely shivering in the centre, take the dish out of the oven. As soon as it comes out of the oven, separate or peel off the edges of the clafoutis pan with a knife to avoid the formation of cracks as the dough cools down.

To give it a nice shiny appearance, coat it with a light layer of jam or red fruit jelly (cherry, raspberry, redcurrant, blueberry or apricot). Optionally, to complete with a crunchy texture, sprinkle the top with a little grated coconut, caramelized almonds or hazelnut powder, a crumble with some sweet spices…

Clafoutis can be eaten lukewarm or cold and will keep for at least 5 days in the refrigerator.