Guest Post: Plum Clafouti

Today, a lovely guest post from our old friend Sabra. There's time yet to get your hands (jaws?) on some delicious plums and feel the summer still. After looking at this, I'd recommend you do that.



A few weeks ago, I decided to take advantage of the summer stone fruits and pull out a favorite recipe from my cookbook, Wanda’s Pie in the Sky (previously mentioned in relation to the Kate Hudson sighting in my Lemon Tart post). The first time I made a clafouti, I was struck by the runniness of the cake batter, and the resulting resemblance to custard. In essence, a clafouti is a custardy cake topped with fruit and powdered sugar. The original recipe calls for pitted sweet cherries, which is how clafouti is traditionally made, but I opted to make it with plums instead. As I do with many of my culinary creations, I brought this one to my weekly Tuesday dinner potluck. Reviews ranged from “I like the fruit, but the cake part is too custardy” to the opposing “I like the custard better than the fruit,” but everyone seemed to agree that the dessert was delicious. (It was also pretty enough to photograph and submit for this blog post!). I hope you enjoy it!

2 TBS butter, softened
5 eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
1 ¾ cups milk
2 TBS amaretto or kirsch (I used whiskey instead)
¾ cup flour 3 medium-sized plums, cut in half with the skins on, but pits removed
¼ cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Spread the softened butter in a 10-inch cake pan or baking dish. (I used a 10-inch springform pan so that I could plate the dessert without the pan, but if you choose to go this route, be sure to put the springform pan on a rimmed cookie sheet, because it will likely leak).

Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla, almond extract, milk, and liqueur until combined, 2-3 minutes. Add the flour and mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and arrange the plum halves on top, cut-side up. (They will probably sink to the bottom of the pan instead of sitting on top of the batter, but will rise to the top again during the baking process). Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the cake is set when lightly pressed in the center. When you remove the cake from the oven, it will be quite puffed up, but will deflate somewhat as it cools. Sprinkle with the powdered sugar and serve warm.