Your Favorite Clafoutis?

[helenas]

What's your favorite combination?

Nina mentioned apple clafoutis. I tried one a while ago, it was great, although i put too much sage in it.

My two favorite ones are "rosemary maple pear" from Herbfarm cookbook, and

"plum brown butter" from "Second Helping From Union Square Cafe".

Both recipes produced non-soggy clafoutis, which is a virtue, since so many recipes suffer from this sogginess.

Maybe one of the solutions is to put clafoutis in some sort of crust, as Vongerichten does in his "Simple to Spectacular"?

Actually, here is the  related question: can you take a tart recipe and convert it to flan by bypassing a crust? Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

[La Niña]

"My" apple clafouti is from a recipe from Saveur.  It might have been a Bittman recipe.  It's fool-proof and terrific.  Not at all soggy, and comes out perfectly every time.  I serve it with good vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.  I have yet to try this recipe with cherries, though I want to.  Not sure what kind of cherries to get...any suggestions?

[mamster]

We usually make blueberry.  The recipe is from John Thorne's Outlaw Cook, and I'm not sure how much resemblance it bears to a traditional clafoutis recipe.

[rozrapp]

My favorite clafoutis are based on a recipe from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking.  She provides a recipe using pears which are marinated in pear brandy.  When peaches are in season, I substitute them and marinate them in -- what else? -- peach brandy.  The recipe is very uncomplicated and always turns out fine.  Either way, yum!  yum!    

[Suvir Saran]

We had pear ones at Alain Ducasse in NYC and they were made with Poire William marinated pears.  Excellent.

[Adam_Balic]

I have made a clafoutis with coconut cream custurd flavoured with pandanus (also known as screwpine, which turns it green) and lychee and mango as the fruit. Served it after a Thai red curry with duck, was v. nice.

[jaybee]

So far, figs are my favorite.  I've yet to bake one, but it is high on my list.

[Peter B Wolf]

Here is a copy of another thread posting of 4 June:

"Bread Pudding:Fruits, Nuts and Milk v. Cream?"

And the following is the recipe I posted:

Here is a recipe I favor. I also have used many other fresh fruits for this, including slightly poached Rhubarb (Liquore Galliano added!).

I also prefere to make this in a 18X12 baking dish (glass or other)

Clafoutis Chaud aux Framboises

Warm Clafoutis with Raspberries

8 ounces shelled almonds

3/4 cup flour

9 large eggs, separated

1 1/3 cups sugar

10 ounces(2 1/2 sticks)unsalted butter, melted

1 cup powered sugar

2 cups fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 400 F

Beat eggs yolks with 1 cup sugar until thick, add melted butter.

Finely grind almonds with flour, than fold in yolk mixture.

Whip powered sugar and egg whites until peaks form,

fold gently in yolk mixture.

Put batter in 6 inche baking dishes (buttered) drop raspberries

on top of each dish about 7 or 8 raspberries.

Bake 18 or 20 minutes until golden brown.

Sprinkle with Demarara Sugar.

Puree remaining sugar and berries pour sauce on dessert dishes.

Put warm cakes on each dessert dish.

[Kim WB]

"My" apple clafouti is from a recipe from Saveur.  It might have been a Bittman recipe.  It's fool-proof and terrific.  Not at all soggy, and comes out perfectly every time.  I serve it with good vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.  I have yet to try this recipe with cherries, though I want to.  Not sure what kind of cherries to get...any suggestions?

No new ideas, just second-ing ( is that a word??!!) the Saveur recipe...I also served it with ice cream..Breyer's Vanilla Bean...I have way fewer dinner parties( and way too many pot lucks..pls. just let me cook.)....than I would like..but this was a winner, with six close friends.

[cjsadler]

Made a clafoutis based on the Saveur recipe. It looked beautiful, but the taste was way too eggy for me. Is this because I overcooked it? Or is this how clafoutis is supposed to be? Or is it just this recipe? Other recipes, such as M. Bittman's or J. Thorne's only have 2-3 eggs (the Saveur one has 6).

Also, I'm considering trying one with pears. Should the pears be cooked first, or will they cook in the oven enough if I cut them small enough?

[Chris Hennes]

Bing cherries are insanely cheap right now, so I've been told to give Calfoutis a shot. Anyone have a foolproof recipe I can try out?

[skipper10]

Bing cherries are insanely cheap right now, so I've been told to give Calfoutis a shot. Anyone have a foolproof recipe I can try out?

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If you have access to Patricia Wells' Province book -- try her clafouti recipe, use cherries with stones in. You will not be sorry. If you make it, would love to know what you think. Her crust is very interesting, my daughter started making it when she was 7, but no one who ate it believed that she made it all on her own. Can't give you the page number, daughter is in Europe, have no idea where the book is. skipper

[Pierogi]

Bing cherries are insanely cheap right now, so I've been told to give Calfoutis a shot. Anyone have a foolproof recipe I can try out?

I've used Ina Garten's (I'm sure its on the FN site) numerous times, and never been disappointed. If its not there, PM me, and I'll send it to you, it's in one of her cookbooks.

[MelissaH]

Julia Child's recipe.

I'd definitely pit the cherries. The risk of having someone crack a tooth is too great for me to take any chances with unpitted fruit. Besides, why make anyone work for dessert?

MelissaH

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've used Bourdain's recipe from the _Les Halles_ cookbook, substituting blackberries for cherries and Black Haus blackberry schnapps for kirsch, and it worked out well. If you don't have the book, here's a copy on the net--

http://www.culinate.com/books/collections/...kbook/Clafoutis

Last time I made them, I did some in a 10" fluted ceramic tart dish and had extra batter, so I did some more in 4.5" metal tart shells with removable bottoms for about 5 min less cooking time, and they all came out nicely. I think one bottle of blackberry schnapps should be enough for the next thirty years.

Edited July 11, 2009 by David A. Goldfarb (log)