twincitiesherbs.com
It is plum season in our neck of the woods (Midwest) right now. Whenever plums show up at the farmers’ market, I can feel the summer is about to come to an end. This is my last chance to indulge in summer fruits so please join me. Oh no not just with any dish … I’m going to say farewell to summer … with a French dish.
This is a fruity dish that is made with a thick flan like batter baked in a buttered dish. Traditionally, it is made with cherries and is called cherry clafoutis or simply clafoutis in French but when made with any other harder fruits like plums, it is called flaugnarde. So technically, this dish is called flaugnarde. It was made in France first, more exactly in Limousine, in the central region of France.
Clafoutis is a simple rustic dish. It is not meant to be beautiful, delicate looking like what you expect a French dessert to be but it is more of a peasant food. So go ahead and pack your dish with the plums, berries and the batter, don’t need to worry about the appearance that much … Also, it is like a crepe just thicker and you should have all the main ingredients in your kitchen already … milk, flour, butter, eggs, sugar … and I think it is a lot tastier than crepes …
Please also check out my plum gnocchi recipe if interested in another plum dish.
RECIPE
Serves 4-6 people
Ingredients
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg for the plums + 1/8 tsp for the batter
- 1/2-1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp dried ginger, cut and sifted or use 1 tsp fresh chopped ginger
- 9 pieces of smaller plums, less if bigger
- 1/3 cup sweet berries
- 3 Tbsp cognac or brandy (optional)
- 1/2 sugar, divided
- 2 Tbsp melted butter, divided
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup of milk
- 1/3 cup ceam (I have used kefir before too)
- 2/3 cup of flour
- 1 tbsp almond extract
- handfull of almond slivers
- pinch of salt
- powdered sugar for serving
twincitiesherbs.com
Preperation
Preheat oven to 350F. Place the rack in the middle of the oven.
For the batter, mix milk, cream, eggs, almond extract, salt, 2 Tbsp – 1/4 cups of sugar, 1/8 tsp nutmeg and 1 Tbsp melted butter with a mixer on high speed quickly and add the flour and continue mixing for another minute. Make sure there are no clumps left but do not overbeat. You can use a whisk, handheld mixer or blender. (Yeap kind of like a crepe mixture). Set aside for an hour if you have time.
Cut up the plums and take out the pitts. (I leave the pitts in). Put plums in a medium sized bowl. Pour 1/4 cup of sugar and the brandy (optional) on the plums. Give it a toss. Let plums macarate for about 10 minutes. Then add berries, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger to the plums. Mix. Set aside.
Use a 10″ inch baking dish (like a quiche dish). You need a dish that has a larger surface area and will hold 6 cups of food. Pour in the melted butter and spread it evenly on the surface of the dish making sure that you coat the sides too.
Evenly spread the plum mixture from earlier on the buttered surface. (I added the marinate liquid, too).
Pour batter (from earlier) over the plum mixture and sprinkle the top with the shaved almonds.
Bake for 45 – 55 minutes or until cake is puffy and has a nice light brown color. An inserted tooth pick should come out clean but the middle should be soft. The texture of the baked clafoutis should be like a study custard.
Let it sit for 15 minutes before serving.
When ready to serve, sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Serve warm.
It can be stored in the refrigerator covered for 24 hours but best eaten the same day.
enjoy! Bon appetite!
twincitiesherbs.com
Recipe, photos, text by twincitiesherbs.com.
Twin Cities Herbs 
One thought on “Plum Flaugnarde (Clafoutis)”