What do you make when you can’t decide between breakfast and dessert? A clafoutis, obviously. (I love rhymes.) Week 20: Clafoutis

 

 

I love farmers markets! Everything is so fresh and colorful. And who can resist an entire block that smells like basil? I went to the Montclair market on Sunday morning and had to limit myself to two bags only. Rough.

 

There were so many beautiful cherry displays! This was my favorite one:

 

So, I wanted a tart, or something along those lines, to show off my lovely fruit haul. I flipped through my newly-acquired Tartine bake book (the one from 2006 with desserts, not the recent ones focused only on bread. Bread is another baking adventure.) I decided on the clafoutis recipe! Definitely spent a few minutes experimenting with how to pronounce it.

From a first glance, it seems like a sweetened pancake batter. Essentially, it’s milk, vanilla, and sugar mixed together over low heat, added to an egg and flour mixture, poured into a pan with delicious cut fruit, and baked. Seems simple, right? Ah well, as per usual with my bakes, it ended up tasting really good but looking like a soggy pancake. Moral of this story: more practice! And a more consistent baking process (I had to run away halfway through making it to go pick someone up, so I had to stick the milk mixture and egg mixture into the fridge and then reheat them when I got back. Thinking that might have had an impact. Possibly.)

 

 

The beginnings of something wonderful.

 

 

Adding vanilla to simmering milk and sugar. Almost a yin yang symbol! Well, kinda.

 

 

Blending the eggs in directly with the flour was interesting. It always seems like it won’t come together and then suddenly it’s a cohesive golden mush.

 

 

Aren’t they a lovely color? My fingers were stained bright pink by the time I was done with the the cherry prep. I’m not much of a pink girl, definitely more into teal and aqua. Too bad there aren’t any teal cherries out there. A girl can dream.

 

 

Prepping fruit and other ingredients in the beginning is so important! I nearly forget every time. Imagine you are drizzling hot liquid and whisking at the same time and you glance over to see whole cherries, unwashed and still hiding their pits. Definitely a big oops moment. It’d be so nice to have the little team of prepping elves that I know work the magic behind the example bakes in the Great British Bake Off.

 

 

So another small snafu (because what would a weekly bake be without them??) occurred when I poured the batter into the pan that I had chosen. Somehow, it didn’t hit me that the batter would be thin enough to leak out the crevice between the removable bottom and the sides. I turned around and it was leaking out all over the counter. Noooooooo.

 

 

Quickly transferred it to the pie dish that I had handy. Whew! Not as pretty, but you do what you gotta do.

 

 

As droopy as it looks, it is delicious! I’ll have to do a couple blog posts later in the year to remake the slightly less-than-beautiful creations that I’ve made so far this year. Like a before and after. Sounds like a plan.

 

 

(This picture kinda looks like a slice of pizza huh?) If you have the right dish ready to go and you don’t have to run an errand halfway though the process, this is a super easy bake and perfect for breakfast or a sweet snack before bed. Happy munching!

 

Recipe from Tartine, by Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt