Clafoutis

 Mixed Berry Clafoutis

Want to impress your guests...

make a clafoutis!  

I've wanted to make Julia Child's clafoutis for years.  Last week, on Bastille Day, I decided  a clafoutis would be the perfect ending to my French themed dinner so I finally made one.

I've tasted many French desserts but I've never had clafoutis.  From my research, clafoutis is the best known dessert of the Limousin region in France.  This rustic dessert is traditionally made with cherries in a buttered dish and covered with a thick crepe-like batter.  They are also called fruit flans as seen In Mastering The Art of French Cooking, where Julia Child calls them fruit flans.  

In my usual manner, I researched and compared recipes for my clafoutis.  In the end, Daniel Boulud's clafoutis recipe won out!  His recipe includes almond powder (almond meal) which traditional recipes do not.  The batter made enough that I could experiment and make two individual sizes as well as one large clafoutis, too.

Here's how simple a clafoutis is to make:

Step 1

 Fill your buttered and floured oven-proof dish (or dishes) with fresh fruit, of your choice. 

(This dessert was perfect for my petite Emile Henry pie dishes.)

 Step 2

Pour in the thick crepe-like batter.  Bake slowly till golden and puffy. 

 Step 3 

Let cool on a wire rack. 

They will deflate a little...just like a souffle!

Sprinkle on confectioner's sugar and serve. 

Voila

You can get the Maison Boulud mixed berry clafoutis recipe and watch Chef Daniel Boulud make it on this video from YouTube.