Stone-Fruit Clafouti

Recently, while perusing one of my favorite blogs, Serious Eats, I came across a photo of something called a clafouti. Having heard only vaguely about clafoutis, I decided to do a little searching to find out just what it was.

What I found was that it sounded like a delicious cross between a custard and a pancake that could be made with just about any seasonal fruit you could imagine. Writers would go on and on about what a delicious treat a clafouti could be, most adding that it is best served warm but a slice served cold out of the fridge for breakfast was equally good.

When it came time to make something for a recent potluck my thoughts turned to clafouti. This, I thought, would be a great use of some of the lovely stone fruit that I have been getting in my CSA box.

From my research it seemed that clafoutis all contain the same basic things, some kind of fruit (cherries are most traditional), eggs, flour and dairy, but there seemed to be quite a bit of variation in ratios and flavoring.

I started with a recipe from Orangette and then shaped it to my liking. Here's the ingredients:

3 Santa Rosa Plums, cut into eighths
2 Flavor Grenade Pluots, cut into eighths (I know there are three in the picture, but it only took five pieces of fruit to fill the bottom of the pie dish)
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup creme fraiche
3/8 cup heavy cream
1/8 cup rose syrup

I started by heating the toaster oven to 350 degrees (no need to heat up the big oven on a warm day). Next I lightly buttered a 9-inch pie plate, the added all of my fruit, skin side down.

Next I whisked together the eggs, sugar and salt for about a minute, until they turned from yellow to pale yellow (this was the hardest part, I hate whisking). I added the rest of my ingredients and continued whisking for another minute or so, until there were no lumps remaining and the batter was light and fluffy. Then I poured this over the pears and popped it into the toaster oven.

Forty minutes later I checked the clafouti. It was all puffed up (and set) in the middle and the edges were nicely browned. I opened the toaster oven door and let the gorgeous smells waft into the living room while we finished dinner.

How was it? Well, I thought it turned out very nicely. Still warm from the oven, it had a nice contrast of the tart fruit and the slightly sweet custard with just a hint of the rose syrup showing through. My potluck guests seemed to enjoy it as well. I won't get to try it out cold from the fridge though (since my guests ate the whole thing). I guess I'll have to make another one.