I saw an article today that explained how to make clafoutis, a famous French dessert and possibly the easiest dessert you can make. In fact, it would be quite good, logistically, to have it sitting in the baking pan, ready to be baked, when your family sits down to dinner. That is going to result in a seriously fresh dessert!
Clafoutis is basically a fruit custard, and when served warm (as presented here, but it could be chilled) you could definitely top it with a yummy caramel sauce, or even hot fudge if you like the combination of fruit and chocolate (like a sundae).
You also have an advantage, in that the ingredients called for here are probably in your house already--especially if you keep frozen fruit in your freezer like I do. All I have to do is pull out some frozen strawberries, blueberries or dark cherries--all of which I have--and let them thaw at room temperature.
However, even though I have the frozen blueberries, I would not recommend them. When I cook or bake with blueberries, I will go and buy some fresh ones. The process of freezing the blueberries ruptures their membranes and the thawed fruit will be running dark-blue juice that you simply cannot avoid. Draining the berries won't help (I tried that).
So in the event that you really want to make a Blueberry Clafoutis, just pick up two baskets of fresh blueberries, rinse and go from there. Organic fruit is generally available at Sprouts in Tucson, and of course availability has a lot to do with what you pick up to make for dessert, but other than blueberries, you can always stop by the frozen section and see what is there.
If I were going to make a clafoutis with sliced peaches, by the way, I would halve the slices across so that they would cook at about the same pace as berries. Frozen peaches tend to be packed when they are harder than the fresh peaches you get in stores, for some reason.
CLAFOUTIS
Ingredients:
1/2 cup organic all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons organic sugar
Pinch of sea salt
3 large organic eggs at room temperature
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Finely grated zest of 1 organic lemon
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons organic milk
1-1/2 pints chopped fresh fruit or berries, 3 cups
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch straight-sided baking dish.
In a bowl, whisk the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. Whisk in the eggs, butter and lemon zest until smooth. Add the milk and whisk until light and very smooth, about 3 minutes. Pour the batter into the gratin dish and top with the fruit.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the clafoutis is set and golden. Let it cool slightly. Dust with confectioners' sugar, cut into wedges and serve.
If you want to go non-dairy you could use unsweetened soy creamer to substitute for the milk in this recipe. Fortunately it does not call for any form of cheese, but you could chill it and make like Sara Lee's Cream Cheesecake (a perennial American favorite) and spread the cold clafoutis with sweetened cream cheese (or substitute) and let it chill again so that the cream cheese sets. It would be interesting--try it sometime.
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