After a couple of very busy weekends, I am back on track with my baking. By busy I simply mean reading every food magazine and lounging by the pool, which oddly enough takes up an absurd amount of my time. The weather here is more bipolar than New England, which is not something that I thought I would ever say—2 weeks it is gorgeous (hence the pool), the next few it’s pouring down rain and drowning all of our pepper plants! While I love a good summer thunderstorm, West Virginia takes it to a whole other level, one that I just can’t seem to get on board with.
Now, something that I can be okay with loving is the fresh produce!! How many posts have I made about fruit and freshness and enjoying every second of it and stuffing my face with too many peaches and too much bourbon?! You get the idea…
What is the next fruit up for display? How about some crazy juicy plums!? Then I thought, how about some cake that has been missing from my life. Fruitcake? No. Caramelized plum cake? Sure. A clafoutis? Absolument, something French!
Woah. A clafou-what?!
More simply put, it is a French fruit dessert, with fruit on the bottom of the pan, and then you cover it with an incredibly moist flan-like batter. Voilà! Here, I added the fun of caramel, like in an upside down cake, with the same flan type texture in the end.
These are great in a fabulously rustic cast iron skillet, individual ramekins, or just a cake pan! Eat it right out of the pan (like I did with my three servings…) or cut and serve it any way that you like. All fruits work so, so well with a clafoutis, it is sure to be a crowd pleasure!
batter ingredients
Sugar—2.6 oz, or 1/3 C
Eggs—3
Flour—2 oz, or ¼ C + 2 TBL
Ginger—0.1 oz, or 1 tsp
Salt—0.1 oz, or ½ tsp
Milk—12 oz, or 1 ½ C
Vanilla—0.3 oz, or 2 tsp
Plums—5 (sliced into wedges)
process
Beat together the sugar and the eggs until light.
Combine the flour, ginger and salt, add to the egg mixture.
Whisk in the milk and vanilla.
Allow your batter to sit for 10 minutes.
caramel ingredients
Sugar—6 oz, or ¾ C
Water—2.5 oz, or 1/3 C
Butter—1 oz, or 2 TBL
process
In a large skillet (I like to use our cast-iron pan!) pour in the sugar, and then add the water on top of it. Should look like wet sand.
Turn the burner onto medium heat so that you can begin to caramelize the sugar.
*Note* If any of the sugar has splashed up onto the sides of your pan, using a wet brush, wash the sides of your pan. Washing down the sugar on the side will prevent it from dropping into your caramel, which would then crystallize and you would then have hard sugar lumps in your beautifully smooth caramel!
After about 10 minutes, you should have an amber colored caramel. At this point, take the pan off of the heat.
Stir in the butter.
Now you may arrange the plums on top of the caramel!
Pour the batter over the caramel and plums.
Preheat your oven to 375˚F.
Bake for 40 minutes, until the cake is golden around the edges and slightly firm.
Once your clafoutis has cooled for about 10-15 minutes, dust confectioner’s sugar on top and enjoy!
Bon Appétit!