Clafoutis! Summer Fruit and Yum!

Summer, ah summer.

I have such a love/hate relationship with it.  I suffer from the heat in sort of a melty ice-cream cone sort of way.  I attempt to bear up, but my energy and gumption sort of run down the back of my legs.

Mostly I just want to sprawl out under the ceiling fan with a brain-dead book and drink cold drinks.  Bare feet that are warm are just weird.

Why I am talking about my feet when what I want to do is tell you about the best thing about summer?

Clafoutis!

Grab up any of the incredible summer fruit that is flooding your local farmers' markets!  This recipe has worked for everything I have ever tried - cherries, plums, pears, peaches, blue berries, apples, or a bit of this and that (kinda my favorite!).  A bit of flour, eggs, sugar, butter, salt and milk - so simple.  The recipe is at the end of the blog, including links to gluten-free recipes.

Make this!

Plum clafoutis, so yummy!

Italian plums, pits removed!  Bowl buttered.

Flour, sugar, eggs, milk -
simple ingredients whisked together

Pour batter over fruit and bake.  Simple!

Arg, now I am hungry and need to
make me another clafoutis!

Fruit Clafoutis

Pronouced: (klä-fü-tē)

This is my take on a classic French dessert.  Technically clafoutis are only made with black cherries, are baked in a flat gratin dish, and are dusted with powdered sugar.  There is some other word when this is made with fruit other than cherries.  But it's no where near as fun to say!    

Ingredients

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar (adjust to taste)

1/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons butter, melted or neutral oil like grapeseed

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)*

Pinch of cinnamon (optional) *

1/3 cup milk (adjust to make smooth batter)

3 cups fresh fruit, rinsed, cleaned, and chopped bite sized

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 9-inch ceramic or glass baking dish. (I use an antique casserole dish.)

2.  In a bowl, whisk the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. Lightly beat eggs, butter and flavorings (as desired) until smooth. Add the milk and egg mixture to the flours mixture.  Whisk until light and very smooth, about 3 minutes.

3.  Settle the fruit on the bottom of the greased dish.  Pour the batter evenly over the top, some of the fruit may float, but don’t worry about it.

4. Bake for about 30 – 45 minutes, until the clafoutis is set and golden. Let cool slightly.  Dish out and serve.  If you like, add ice cream or cream.  I like a pat of butter on top.  Yum.  Great cold for breakfast as well. 

* Flavorings are optional and a place for you to play.  I pair the flavorings that I like with the fruit.  Cinnamon and nutmeg with apples, ground almonds with cherries, a pinch of black pepper with strawberries – you get the idea!

Here are a couple of links to gluten-free clafoutis:

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2011/06/gluten-free-cherry-clafoutis.html

http://glutenfreegirl.com/2008/09/clafoutis-clafoutis-clafoutis/