Julia Child's Pear Clafoutis Recipe
A traditional French dessert originating in the Limousin during the cherry season is peasant cooking for family meals, and about as simple as a dessert to make as you can imagine: a pancake batter poured over fruit in a fireproof dish, then baked in the oven. It looks like a tart, and is usually eaten warm.
Equipment
- Blender or hand mixer
- A 7- to 8-cup lightly buttered, fireproof baking dish or pyrex pie plate about 1 ½ inches deep
Ingredients
Pear Mixture
- ¼ cup sweet white wine, kirsch, or cognac
- 3 cups peeled, cored, and sliced ripe pears (1 ¼ to 1 ½ lbs. pears)
- ⅓ cup cup granulated sugar
Clafoutis Batter
- 1 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup sifted all-purpose flour
- 1-2 tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
- Combine pears with wine, kirsch, or cognac and sugar.Substitute this liquid for part of the milk called for in the batter.
- Preheat the oven to 350°Combine milk, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, flour and mix until smooth.
- Pour a ¼ inch layer of batter in the baking dish or pie plate. Set over moderate heat for a minute or two until a film of batter has set in the bottom of the dish. Remove from heat.
- Spread the pear pieces over the batter and pour on the rest of the batter and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon
- Place in the middle position of the preheated oven and bake for about an hour. The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned, and needle or knife plunged into its centre comes out clean.
- Sprinkle top of clafouti with powdered sugar just before bringing it to the table. (The clafouti need not be served hot, but should still be warm. It will sink down slightly as it cools.)