12.22.2020
BLACKBERRY AND PEAR CLAFOUTI
Gluten and Lactose-Free
Preheat oven to 375F
Serves: 4 to 6
Clafouti is a baked French dish, typically made with cherries in a custard thickened with flour. I have made it with apples, pears, berries etc. It is always yummy.
I used to make this all the time when our children were little. Then, I got out of the habit and did not think of it until our son Nicholas made it as a pudding for Thanksgiving for some of the people in his unit who had to work on Thanksgiving Day.
A few weeks ago, I found a tin of Pear and Blackberry Drops that looked yum and recalled seeing some lovely Bartlet pears in the produce department as well as some luscious blackberries and that light bulb went off in my head, Pear and Blackberry Clafouti!
That night when I made the clafouti after it was in the oven for about 30 minutes, I realized that I had measured out the milk, but not added it. We had a sort of cake with pears and blackberries. It was good!
Few days later, I made it again. This time it came out really great, but I wanted to have more of a pudding texture than a cakey texture so when I made it tonight, I reduced the amount of flour I added to the recipe.
Whenever I had used pears, I had used firm pears, which was good in the clafouti, but I wondered how it would be if I made with pears that were ripe and juicy. Only one word to describe, Lucious.
I used a glass au gratin dish; you can use a skillet lined with a sheet of parchment as Nicholas did or a cake tin. Any of them will work.
If you already have the oven on for something else make a clafouti as it is an easy and quick (healthy and yummy too) desert to make.
I have only ever made this with cow's milk. I don’t see why you could not use almond milk or oat milk both of which will give extra flavor, and the flour will thicken the custard.
Prep your ingredients and clear the decks. (if I had done this, I would not have forgotten the milk that first time)
To perp the pan:
Ghee - 1 T
Sugar in the raw - 2 T
Custard:
Sugar in the raw - 8 T
Lactaid milk – 1 ¼ c, 2 % or 4 %
Eggs – 3
Salt – ¾ t
Flour – ½ c, Bob’s 1 to 1, almond flour, or any gluten-free all-purpose flour would work fine
Fruit:
Berries, peaches, pears, apples, whichever you have on hand – 2 ½ c
Kosher salt – ¼ t
Lemon juice – 1 t
If you are using fruit that will turn brown after being cut, toss the fruit in a mixture of lemon juice and salt.
Topping:
Sugar in the raw – 2 T
Prep the baking dish by scooping a Tablespoon of ghee onto the dish and brushing it about or using your fingers to smear it about, bottom and sides. Then sprinkle 2 T of sugar on top of the ghee and set aside.
Peel, core, and dice (½ to ¾ “) ripe pears and set them aside sprinkled with a bit of salt and or lemon juice.
Blend or whir the custard and pour about 1/3 of it on the bottom of the prepped pan. Place the pears in a layer so all pieces are sort of level, sprinkle 1 T of sugar on the fruit. Pour the rest of the custard on top of the pears to cover them. I then dotted as many blackberries as I wanted on top and sprinkled on 1 T more of the sugar on top.
Place the baking dish on a sheet pan and bake in a preheated 375F oven for about 45 minutes and check. I ended up needing about 60 minutes for the custard to set. (It is done when a testing thing comes out clean).
You can see a crack on my custard, that is because I didn’t treat it as a custard by using a deep enough baking pan underneath filled halfway up the dish with boiling water!
This was delicious warm but it will be just as yummy cold tomorrow.
Enjoy!