Clafoutis!
Sep. 1st, 2013 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angharad_gam(Pronounced cla-foo-tee because it is French).
Because I seem to be doing this thing where I post nothing for weeks and then do all the posts at once, here is one more thing. Today was one of those filled every minute with doing things and now I'm completely knackered but in a pretty good way kind of days.
So I got up this morning and gave Andy his Fathers' Day present, and made him blueberry and strawberry crepes for breakfast. And then I went out and planted a bunch of plants I bought recently. The gardening I mentioned early was basically a massive weeding of the front garden, which now has a lot more space since the bottle brush fell down. Today I covered a large portion of the weeded area in bark chips, to discourage more weeds and also make it look a bit more tidy (we will possibly be selling this house soon, after all), and put in alyssum which is a small, creeping plant with purple flowers, and parsley, and a passionfruit vine, and spinach and shallots.
And then I made lunch, and spent half an hour playing a new game I have called Memoria, and then we went to see Andy's dad, and then we came home and I made lamb with red wine and quince glaze and a cherry clafoutis for dinner and then after dinner I made muffins for the kids to take to school next week.
I like clafoutis. It is a French version of what in English is called batter pudding, which you've probably never had unless your family was into those old-fashioned English desserts like spotted dick and cobbler and so on. So here is a recipe.
25gms/1 tblsp butter melted
4 eggs
1 cup/250mls milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
Filling
Preheat the oven to 180C
Mix the flour and sugar very well in a large bowl. In another bowl beat the eggs one at a time into the melted butter, and then whisk in the milk. Add this to the dry ingredients and whisk together thoroughly until smooth.
Take a greased pie dish. Put in the filling. You could use a punnet of blueberries or strawberries (hull and quarter the strawberries first), a big handful of stoned and halved fresh cherries, or as I do, a large jar of cherries very well drained. Generally you want some fruit that is small and lightweight as the pieces will float to the top when it bakes. Pour the batter over, and put into the oven.
Bake for about 30 mins or until the clafoutis is evenly puffed up and golden brown. Take it out and dust it liberally with icing sugar and eat it straight away.
This really is one of those things like soufflé that needs to be eaten pretty much straight away. After a few minutes it starts to sink and when it is cold is kind of dense and rubbery (I actually don't mind it like that too much, but it is infinitely better when freshly out of the oven). Nice fresh eggs, a well-preheated oven, a strong arm with the whisk, and making it really quickly and getting it in the oven straight away will all contribute to a great clafoutis.
Because I seem to be doing this thing where I post nothing for weeks and then do all the posts at once, here is one more thing. Today was one of those filled every minute with doing things and now I'm completely knackered but in a pretty good way kind of days.
So I got up this morning and gave Andy his Fathers' Day present, and made him blueberry and strawberry crepes for breakfast. And then I went out and planted a bunch of plants I bought recently. The gardening I mentioned early was basically a massive weeding of the front garden, which now has a lot more space since the bottle brush fell down. Today I covered a large portion of the weeded area in bark chips, to discourage more weeds and also make it look a bit more tidy (we will possibly be selling this house soon, after all), and put in alyssum which is a small, creeping plant with purple flowers, and parsley, and a passionfruit vine, and spinach and shallots.
And then I made lunch, and spent half an hour playing a new game I have called Memoria, and then we went to see Andy's dad, and then we came home and I made lamb with red wine and quince glaze and a cherry clafoutis for dinner and then after dinner I made muffins for the kids to take to school next week.
I like clafoutis. It is a French version of what in English is called batter pudding, which you've probably never had unless your family was into those old-fashioned English desserts like spotted dick and cobbler and so on. So here is a recipe.
25gms/1 tblsp butter melted
4 eggs
1 cup/250mls milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
Filling
Preheat the oven to 180C
Mix the flour and sugar very well in a large bowl. In another bowl beat the eggs one at a time into the melted butter, and then whisk in the milk. Add this to the dry ingredients and whisk together thoroughly until smooth.
Take a greased pie dish. Put in the filling. You could use a punnet of blueberries or strawberries (hull and quarter the strawberries first), a big handful of stoned and halved fresh cherries, or as I do, a large jar of cherries very well drained. Generally you want some fruit that is small and lightweight as the pieces will float to the top when it bakes. Pour the batter over, and put into the oven.
Bake for about 30 mins or until the clafoutis is evenly puffed up and golden brown. Take it out and dust it liberally with icing sugar and eat it straight away.
This really is one of those things like soufflé that needs to be eaten pretty much straight away. After a few minutes it starts to sink and when it is cold is kind of dense and rubbery (I actually don't mind it like that too much, but it is infinitely better when freshly out of the oven). Nice fresh eggs, a well-preheated oven, a strong arm with the whisk, and making it really quickly and getting it in the oven straight away will all contribute to a great clafoutis.
