Clafoutis with apricots
Clafoutis (pronounced: kla-FOO-tee), is a baked French dessert of fruit, traditionally black cherries, arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. This pie comes from the Limousine region of France. It apparently spread throughout France during the 19th century.
I was always interested in cooking it though I hardly imagined how one can bake a pie that contains pits of the cherries. Also, the French traditionally use many eggs to make this dish, like 6–8 per pie, and that made me confused. But not long ago I found a recipe with two eggs only and apricots instead of cherries so I thought why not to try. The taste of it was so good that I cooked it later again (but put some mango slices on top of apricots).
When other kinds of fruit are used instead of cherries, the dish is properly called a flaugnarde but who will ever search for a flaugnarde recipe? :)
Here’s what you need (serves 4):
- a few apricots, pitted & halved, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan (let’s say, you need one pound or 450 gr)
- ~1 cup of flour (100 gr)
- 1/3 cup of sugar (70 gr)
- 1 tsp of vanilla syrup OR brandy
- pinch of salt
- 10 tbsp of milk (150 ml) — you may use almond milk
- 2 eggs
- optional: sugared powder for topping, almond chips, any other fruit
- some butter or oil to grease the pan
Step-by-step:
- Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). In an ovenproof frying pan, melt the butter. Arrange the apricots in an even layer in the bottom of the pan.
- Whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla syrup, salt and flour until smooth. Pour the batter over the apricots. Top with almond chips if you prefer.
- Bake until the clafoutis is puffed and golden brown, about 45 minutes. Let cool slightly.
Traditionally, the clafoutis is dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm, sometimes with cream. I prefer it with ice-cream and coffee :)
