Clafoutis is a traditional French pudding, a store cupboard pudding; a celebration of whatever fruit is in season mixed with eggs, milk, sugar and flour. I’ve met them in all different forms from the very eggy, almost like a fruit-filled omelette type, to firm custardy tart and others that are more of a Dutch pancake or Yorkshire pudding texture. I think it very much depends on how your granny used to make hers. A recipe with as many family variations as there are families, each with their own merits. And so I have made a Jones family version, tweaked it a little to suit our tastes and store cupboards.
This recipe makes four individual servings of clafoutis, but it can easily be doubled or trebled and cooked in one larger dish to serve a crowed. I’ve made it with cherries here because it’s traditional, but I also make it with fresh raspberries, or blackberry and apple (my recipe for that is here), you could try plums or apricots and strawberries would probably work too.
Despite being my version, this recipe does have French approval. We spent a beautiful evening one summer, sharing a BBQ with our neighbour Alain and his family. He had asked us, over the telephone, to bring pudding. Tim heard mention of a clafoutis and thought I should probably make one of those. So we arrived freshly made clafoutis in hand, still warm from the oven. Alain looked perplexed, and then laughed. “Ah you misunderstood, I said Charlotte was bringing a clafoutis – but its no problem, you can never have too much clafoutis.” And so the clafoutis’ sat side by side on the table – one French, one English. We ate BBQ and drank wine as the sun went down. Then very solemnly it was declared that it was time for pudding and the France vs England taste test would begin. Everyone very diplomatically declared them both to be delicious, equally good, but different. “No,” said Alain, “Don’t be ridiculous, the English one is better.”
INGREDIENTS
A little butter and caster sugar to prepare your dishes
450g cherries (stones removed)
50g caster sugar
A good splash of kirsch
2 eggs
45g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extracts
20g butter
20g plain flour
30g ground almonds
50ml whole milk
75ml cream (the one I use is about 30% fat – UK whipping cream would be similar)
Pinch of salt
Method
Butter four individual ramekins and dust each with caster sugar, rolling it around the sides and tapping out the excess. Set aside.
Sprinkle the sugar over the cherries and pour over the kirsch, stir to coat and leave to macerate for at least 30 minutes.
Lightly whisk together the eggs and sugar, you can do this by hand, they just need to be well combined and a little frothy. Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
In a small saucepan melt the butter over a medium heat and allow to brown slightly, this gives the butter a lovely nutty, caramelised taste. This step isn’t essential, but it does add a little extra flavour.
Add the browned butter to the egg mixture and stir to combine. Tip in the flour and ground almonds and mix until smooth, then add the milk and cream and a pinch of salt and mix again. This batter can be made well in advance and is quite happy sitting until you are ready to make the clafoutis.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c
Spoon the cherries into the bottom of the ramekins, dividing them equally between the dishes. Add one tablespoonful of the macerating juices to the batter for each individual clafoutis you are making (in this recipe we are making four individual puddings so add four tablespoons of the juice to the batter – if we were doubling the recipe we would add eight tablespoons and so on). Mix again.
Pour the batter into the ramekins over the fruit until it comes a little below the top of the dish. The clafoutis will rise, soufflé-like in the oven and then sink back down as they cool – this is normal. So fill the ramekins to the level that you’d like the pudding to eventually sit at.
Put the dishes on a baking tray and bake at 180c for 25-30mins or until puffed and golden. Allow to cool before serving – they can be eaten warm or at room temperature and are definitely at their best on the day they are made.
