October 11, 2018

CARAMELISED APPLE CLAFOUTIS

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This is one of those desserts that might not look much but it tasted divine.  I love a good clafoutis and over the years have tried several different recipes for the batter and various fruits.  In fact I once came close to writing a post called “a tale of two clafoutis” which compared two different recipes, one of them by Raymond Blanc – and he should know how to make a good one - but it got forgotten and the photos remain in my “posts that never quite happened” file.

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This recipe comes from an M&S booking called “Baking” which I think was a Christmas present many years ago.  I have had success with a few of the recipes from it and I have a hunch that it’s from the Australian Woman’s Weekly stable of cookery books.

When it comes to fruit puddings I’m more of a “chuck it in the dish and add a topping” kind of cook so the idea of caramelising the apples in a pan first seemed like a step too far but it was absolutely worth it.

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The quantities made a huge pudding and in fact I kept some of the apples and the batter aside rather than overfill the dish.  I also thought it might not be a good idea to pour all of the caramel in either so I also reserved some of that to pour over a second pudding later.  I’m looking forward to making a small mixed fruit clafoutis with the reserved fruit and batter later today.

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And here it is, clafoutis revisited.  I used the few reserved apple wedges, one nectarine and two apricots, poured over the reserved caramel (about a tablespoonful) and batter and baked for 30 minutes.  Delicious!  It also proves that a dessert doesn’t have to be glamorous to be really yummy!

Ingredients

For the fruit

6 medium dessert apples (900g)

50g unsalted butter

110g light muscovado sugar

For the batter

50g plain flour

50g self raising flour

75g caster sugar

4 eggs, beaten lightly

160ml milk

160ml cream (I used Elmlee light double cream)

80g unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Grease a large, shallowish 2.5 litre baking dish.  Preheat the oven to 200° C / 180° fan.

For the fruit, peel and halve the apples.  Remove the cores with a melon baller or sharp knife and cut each half into four wedges.

Melt the 50g butter in a large, deep frying pan, add the apples and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes until lightly browned.  Add the brown sugar and continue cooking for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens. 

Tip the fruit into the dish and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Make the batter while the fruit is cooling by sifting the flours into a large bowl.  Add the caster sugar and mix together.  Gradually whisk in the remaining batter ingredients with a balloon whisk, until smooth, and pour over the fruit.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Serve warm with pouring or whipped cream.  Dust with icing sugar before serving if you like.

Serves 6.

4 comments:

  1. This sounds absolutely delicious! I'll definitely be trying it. I love a clafoutis (though strictly speaking if it's not made with cherries it's called flognarde!)

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    Replies
    1. Veronica, cherry clafoutis is the classic but around here we get them made of all kinds of fruit, apricot being one of my favourites, always referred to as a clafoutis. There must be a story about the difference somewhere!
      The only place I have ever come across flognarde is on Phil's blog.
      http://asstrongassoup.blogspot.com/2014/10/flognarde.html

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    2. I rarely use anything other than apricots or cherries in my clafoutis/flognarde, but I made this one tonight and it was delicious! And definitely no more work than stoning cherries or apricots :)

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    3. So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know.

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