Classic French Clafoutis

[pastrymama]

Paula, I just wanted to update my success with your clafoutis recipe. It occured to me that the pan I was using was maybe too thin. It was a metal pan that the chef bought at the grocery store. So I tried using a ceramic baking dish that I brought from home. I made sure the batter was smooth and let it rest longer. I baked it at 425 degrees and it came out great. No curdling, very smooth and extremely delicious. Thank you so much for your help.

Marilyn

[Wolfert]

Paula,                                                                                                            I just wanted to update my success with your clafoutis recipe.  It occured to me that the pan I was using was maybe too thin.  It was a metal pan that the chef bought at the grocery store.  So I tried using a ceramic baking dish that I brought from home.  I made sure the batter was smooth and let it rest longer.  I baked it at 425 degrees and it came out great.  No curdling, very smooth and extremely delicious.  Thank you so much for your help.         

                                                                                Marilyn

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Marilyn,

Thank you for the update. I am really pleased that this time the recipe worked for you.

Paula

[Steven Blaski]

I've always had great success with Julia's clafoutis from Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One (I love any excuse to revisit that tome). Hers is extremely easy and simple (via the blender) and she provides variations for cherry, pear, plum, apple, blackberry, blueberry, and cherry or pear with almonds.

[Kim Shook]

I am making a clafoutis for the first time and it has cooked for 15 minutes longer than the recipe calls for and is still soupy in the middle. Is it supposed to be firm - the directions say take it out when a knife comes out clean. But its still liquid. Help, please!!! Ta!

[David Ross]

Hi Kim. I love making Clafoutis. I'm just sorry I couldn't find a photo of one to post for you. My guess is that maybe you didn't add enough starch to the custard and it is not thickening/setting up properly. It could also be the type of fruit you are using. Fruits that put out a lot of juice like cherries can cause a Clafouti to be too runny. Maybe it needs another egg?

You might want to look at Joel Robuchon's Clafoutis recipe in his book, "Simply French" written with Patricia Wells. Chef Robuchon uses bits of leftover pastry dough folded into the custard to help soak up some of the juice of the cherries as his Clafoutis bakes. I use his basic recipe, but I don't add the pastry bits to the custard. Mine seems to set up fine.

Here is my recipe. Compare it to the one you are using and let me know what the differences are.

Sweet Pastry Crust

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup cake flour

1 tbsp. superfine granulated sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, chilled

½ cup Crisco shortening, chilled

1/3 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cake flour, sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter, blend in the butter and Crisco. Cut the mixture until the pieces are the size of peas. Using a fork, blend in enough of the ice water so that the dough begins to form a ball. Using your hands, gently form the dough into one ball. Place the dough in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before using.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it warm to room temperature.

Sprinkle a board with flour. Roll the dough out into a circle large enough to fill the bottom of a tart pan.

Spray the bottom and edges of the tart pan with a non-stick oil such as Pam®.

Line the tart pan with the dough then trim the edges of the pastry.

Filling

1 1/2 pounds cherries, pitted

1/3 cup Kirsch, (cherry liqueur)

3 tbsp. flour

½ tsp. salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

4 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

½ vanilla bean

¼ cup powdered sugar

Place the cherries in a bowl. (Do not use a metal bowl as it will react with the cherry liqueur). Add the Kirsch and toss the cherries to coat. Let the cherries macerate in the liqueur at room temperature for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Add the flour, salt and sugar to the bowl of the food processor. With the processor running, add the whole eggs, egg yolks, milk, and cream. Cut the vanilla bean in half and add the seeds to the batter mixture.

Drain the cherries, reserving the liqueur for another use.

Place the cherries in an even layer in the bottom of the tart pan.

Pour the batter over the cherries.

Bake the clafoutis in the oven until the top is browned and the custard is set, about 45 minutes.

Remove the clafoutis from the oven and let it cool completely.

Dust the clafoutis with the powdered sugar then cut into wedges and serve. Serve warm with Vanilla Ice Cream.

[Pierogi]

Hmmm, not that I am either a pastry *or* a clafouti expert, but all the recipes I've seen, and made, do not have any kind of a crust at all. It's more like a thick pancake batter poured over the fruit. I've made several from different sources, Ina Garten, Mark Bittman, andIdon'trememberwho(orwhere).........They've all been an egg-y, thin-ish, batter, with some flour in it to hold it all together, poured over the fruit and cooked in a deep-dish pie pan.

The recipes I've done have said that, like a custard, there will be carry-over cooking from the residual heat, and that you should pull them while still slightly "jiggly" in the center, and that has seemed to work OK for me. By the time I was ready to serve them (like maybe 45 minutes after they came out of the oven) they were fine. Not rock hard, but nice and creamy around the fruit.

Now again, I haven't a HUGE amount of experience, but I've made clafouti from cherries, plums, nectarines and most recently clemantine tangerines, and all have basically been the same deal. Kim, the only thing I'd say maybe caused your problem is if your fruit was really wet & juicy...that could contribute to it not setting up right.

It's probably too late for you for this to be of help, but I'd have kept it in for a bit longer, and then waited for that lovely carry-over cooking to do its magic......

[gfron1]

I think David is thinking of a galette - which ironically enough is the same mistake I make all the time!

I'd say keep on bakin'. I've stopped using recipe times long ago. My nose and eyes are better than any clock or toothpick. There simply are too many variations to let time be the guide. Just let it be a reminder and when its done, its done.

[David Ross]

Maybe I've been calling my dish a Clafouti when it really wasn't? I'll have to check Chef Robuchon's cookbook when I get back home this evening, but I am pretty sure what he calls a clafouti are cherries placed in a tart crust and then the custard poured in and the clafouti baked.

What stands out in my mind is that Robuchon mentions that after the pastry dough is formed in the tart pan that you take the pastry trimmings and sprinkle them over the custard so that it sets up as the Clafouti bakes. Now I'm going totally off memory right now as to the specifics of Chef Robuchon's recipe, so I'm not 100% sure that his definition of a Clafouti is one baked in a tart shell. I sure wouldn't argue with Chef Joel Robuchon as to what makes a Clafouti!

Clafoutis is a wonderful dessert that somehow doesn't seem to appear on menus as much as it probably should.

[Kim Shook]

Thanks so much for the help, y'all! The recipe is here. It's a Paula Wolfert recipe from an old Food & Wine. I used frozen cherries and thought that might be a problem, but the recipe calls for you to freeze the fresh ones before you use them, so I don't see the difference. As an aside, I was lucky that the recipe was online. In the magazine there is an error. The ingredient list calls for 2 cups of milk and in the directions it tells you to use 1/2 c. of it and then to use the remaining 3 1/2 c.!! They had corrected it online, but just think how soupy it would have been if I'd used 4 cups of milk !!

It ended up tasting really good - and it did firm up a bit on sitting and cooling, though it never got really cake-like or even firm custard-like. But I probably cooked it an additional 20 - 30 minutes.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I've made a ton of clafoutis and agree that there should not be a crust; baked in either a quiche pan or a cast-iron skillet, it is generally just a custard. I'm thinking that the addition of a crust is a chef's take on doing something slightly different and then it is just a tart.

I'd look to Paula Wolfert's recipe in Cooking of Southwest France or the Saveur recipe. Fresh cherries are infinitely better than canned as the juice content can keep the custard from setting.

Kim, you didn't indicate what kind of fruit you are using and that is probably why you might be having problems... too much liquid.

[Kim Shook]

Carolyn - I used frozen cherries.

Here is a picture of what seems to be a good example. Mine looked nothing like that . I'll take a picture tonight and post it.

[David Ross]

I found my Cherry Clafoutis photos. I made this particular Clafoutis last Summer using fresh Bing cherries picked not far from my home in Eastern Washington.

From what I am hearing, a traditional Clafoutis isn't baked in a tart shell. But since I got the recipe from Joel Robuchon and I consider him one of the top French chefs of the day, I'll trust that this was his modern adaptation of a classic French dessert.

Pastry Shell:

Fresh Bing Cherries in Tart Shell:

Custard Poured over Cherries in Tart Shell:

Baked Cherry Clafoutis dusted with Powdered Sugar:

[kbjesq]

From what I am hearing, a traditional Clafoutis isn't baked in a tart shell.  But since I got the recipe from Joel Robuchon and I consider him one of the top French chefs of the day, I'll trust that this was his modern adaptation of a classic French dessert.

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David Ross' recipe works great without the pastry. (I wasn't trying to be traditional, I'm just lazy and my efforts at making pastry are always dismal, so I left it out). Absolutely delicious, nonetheless. I think it's the cherry brandy.

[David Ross]

Thanks, I remembered you liked that Clafouti.

[CaliPoutine]

From what I am hearing, a traditional Clafoutis isn't baked in a tart shell.  But since I got the recipe from Joel Robuchon and I consider him one of the top French chefs of the day, I'll trust that this was his modern adaptation of a classic French dessert.

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David Ross' recipe works great without the pastry. (I wasn't trying to be traditional, I'm just lazy and my efforts at making pastry are always dismal, so I left it out). Absolutely delicious, nonetheless. I think it's the cherry brandy.

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Wow, that looks so good!! I want a bite NOW!!

[David Ross]

I have Chef Robuchon's "Simply French" cookbook (written with Patricia Wells, William Morrow, 1991), in front of me right now. I had to satisfy my own confusion over this Clafoutis in a crust or not in a crust debate and I knew that since my recipe was based on Robuchon's, he'd have the answers I was looking for.

After reviewing Chef Robuchon's recipe and comments on Clafoutis, I guess both sides of our crust/no crust discussion could argue their point successfully. Whichever method you choose I don't think you can go wrong. This is a wonderful dessert using any kind of fruit with pits, and then of course it must be served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Here is what Chef Robuchon and Ms. Wells have to say about the issues we have been discussing-fresh vs. frozen cherries, (He only uses fresh), how to reduce the amount of liquid from the cherries, pitted vs. non-pitted cherries and pastry crust vs. no pastry crust.

Cherry Clafoutis

Clafoutis Aux Cerises

"Leave it to Chef Robuchon to come up with a truly stunning, original version of the most classic of all French Clafoutis. Cherries-one of the few truly seasonal fruits left in the world-are delicious but problematical. Their juiciness often gets in the way when cooking, causing tarts and desserts to turn soggy or to overflow. In Jamin's kitchens, the problem is solved two ways. First, the pitted cherries are baked with a touch of Kirsch and sugar, as a way of reducing and thus harnessing the rich flavors of the juice. Then before baking, the cherries are sprinkled with fine crumbs prepared from the trimmed sweet pastry. As with most recipes, this is a simple blueprint. For a more rustic (and traditional) Clafoutis, the dessert may be baked in a porcelain baking dish, without the pastry. Also, cherries are not pitted in the traditional cherry clafoutis, so you may choose to folow suit."

[Kim Shook]

Well, here's a picture of mine. I didn't think the frozen cherries would cause a problem since the recipe has you freeze the fresh ones before using them, but seeing all the 'bleeding' I think that they were a problem. Maybe all the juice interfered with the rise? It also made the entire thing purple !

[David Ross]

Kim you may want to try it with fresh cherries to see the difference in the finished Clafoutis. I think what may have happened is that when the cherries froze they collected little ice particles which in turn became extra cherry juice when you baked the Clafoutis-thus your result of too much juice in ratio to the custard. You may need to just wait until the fresh cherries are ripe in your area sometime in the Summer.

Last weekend I made a cherry cobbler using frozen bing cherries and the dessert turned out just fine-but the cherry base for a cobbler is much more forgiving than the cherries baked in a custard for a Clafoutis.

I'm thinking Chef Robuchon is right when he suggests that we resist the temptation of making a Clafoutis in the Winter and that we only use fresh cherries in season for our Clafoutis.

[David Ross]

Kim one more thing I thought of is the type of dish you are using. Maybe the pros that are reading this thread can chime in on this point-I see you used a glass dish for your Clafoutis? I am wondering if a glass dish can be a factor in the fruit being overly 'wet?' Chef Robuchon advises using a porcelain dish for his Clafoutis. Since I bake mine in a pastry shell, I use a metal tart pan, but you can see in the photo from kbjesq that she used a porcelain dish using my recipe.

[Kim Shook]

Kim one more thing I thought of is the type of dish you are using.  Maybe the pros that are reading this thread can chime in on this point-I see you used a glass dish for your Clafoutis?  I am wondering if a glass dish can be a factor in the fruit being overly 'wet?'  Chef Robuchon advises using a porcelain dish for his Clafoutis.  Since I bake mine in a pastry shell, I use a metal tart pan, but you can see in the photo from kbjesq that she used a porcelain dish using my recipe.

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Thank you, David! I will try both of your suggestions - this summer!

[CanadianBakin']

What's the deal with crust or no crust? Is one way more authentic? Or is it just a preference thing? Which do you prefer? I've got cherries sitting in my fridge waiting to be baked in a Clafouti.

[Shel_B]

I'd like to try making a clafoutis or two, and I've seen recipes for the batter calling for milk (low fat to full fat), half-and-half, cream, or combinations of those ingredients. How do these different ingredients effect the texture (and taste?) of the final custard/pastry? Thanks!

Edited August 20, 2012 by Shel_B (log)

[Shel_B]

I'm planning to make a Flognarde Pommes, or Apple Clafoutis, and I have plenty of pans in which I can make the dish. However, I just read that clafoutis "need" an earthenware pan to bake properly.

I am sure that there have been countless clafoutis baked in many other materials, but I'm curious about the statement. Might an earthenware baking dish be a better, or best, choice? What characteristics of an earthenware dish make it desirable for a clafoutis? Why would earthenware be needed for a clafoutis to bake properly? And what is "proper" for a clafoutis?

[heidih]

Where did you read that? Since it is served from the baking dish a prettier pan seems to be a presentation issue.

[Shel_B]

http://www.notyourmotherscookbook.com/its-all-in-the-pan/

Second paragraph from the end of the article, above the pic of the bread in the pan.