Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Attempting the Art of French Cooking: Clafouti aux Myrtilles

"about as simple a dessert to make as you can imagine" - Mastering The Art of French Cooking in reference to the recipe for Clafouti

I mentioned in my post on my French meal, Supremes de Volialle a la Milanaise with Beurre Noisette and Choux Broccoli Etuves au Beurre, that I had also made a dessert to go with this meal.

I will keep you waiting no longer, it is a desert that Julia Child considers "a simple" dessert, but apparently Julia never bought a pint of Ben and Jerry's or made a box of Betty Crocker brownies.

This dessert is the Clafoutis which the cookbook calls a "Fruit Flan." All this is not why I would consider a flan but whatever, can't argue with Julia can I.

The recipe was wonderful because unlike all the other desert recipes I didn't have to split the eggs, in fact, I got to make the batter in a blender, and it was pretty easy, mostly milk and eggs, and a little bit of flour.

Julia gives us a number of variation for this recipie, cherry, cherry with liquer, pear, plum, apple, blackberry, and so forth. I chose to make it with blueberries...they're in season, they're yummy, and they worked great with this recipe.

First you do a light layer of the batter and cook it just a bit to create a crust, then add the berries a some sugar, and pour the rest of the batter over it and cook for an hour.

This is nice too because when it's done you don't have to "decorate it" or do any thing else -- it's done and ready to serve. The desert is impressive because even though you only have one batter you end up having three different layers and textures, the bottom layer, and inner "filling" and then a light and crisp crust. It's absolutely magical.

Then per Julia's recommendation, I sprinkler a little powdered sugar on top, and per my own recommendation made some coffee and enjoyed.

It even tasted good a couple days later. I have to say, I think I could easily become a clafouti fan.

I will definitely make this again, and can only imagine how it might taste with different fruit. Thank you Julia.

6 comments:

AK said...

I want to try this one!!

Your fatter mom said...

This was the best dessert so far...I enjoyed my slice with a bit of coffee on that rainy afternoon.
YUMMMMM

Jamie Dawn said...

That sounds and looks YUMMY!!
I agree with you that it doesn't look like a flan. I think of custard in a Mexican restaurant when I think of flan.
It sounds easy enough for me to try! I like easy desserts that taste super good. I bet that would taste marvy using blackberries or any other available fruit.
Thanks for sharing! You done gooood!!

Eralel83 said...

Looks tasty!

Karen said...

All those yummy blueberries.

Um Naief said...

this looks absolutely delicious. i've never made flan, but now i want to.