Peach Clafoutis

Everyone's clafoutis is a little different.

A clafoutis is traditional french dessert and a great way to use up that summer fruit. It is quick and easy to make. The ingredients are simple and not overly unhealthy for you. It lies somewhere between a pancake and a custard. It's not sweet and sugary like a pie. Instead, it has an old world simplicity that takes you back to a time before mega-sweet desserts were the norm. Traditionally, it was made with cherries but you can also make it with berries, plums, sliced peaches, nectarines or apricots when in season.

I've made two in the last two weeks in an effort to use up our backyard peaches. The first one was just straight peaches. Then, the following week, I made it again but also added blueberries. I knew that the addition of blueberries would make look more attractive (and add another dimension in taste).

There are plenty of recipes online (I've included some below). You'll find variations in the amount of some of the key ingredients but it's easy enough to make you can fine tune it to your palate.

Here's where I started but it may evolve.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4-6 peaches
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• With a kitchen blender or a hand mixer, whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in eggs one at a time. Whisk in milk and vanilla, just until incorporated.
• Slice the peaches into 8ths. Peel them as you cut them (You can also drop whole peaches in boiling water for one minute and then transfer to an ice bath. The skins come right off then). But the peaches in my backyard were easy enough to peel as I sliced them.
• Butter a 9 inch pie dish and pour just enough batter so as to cover the bottom of the dish.
• Artfully arrange the peach slices evenly on the bottom of the dish. Pour the remaining batter over peaches.
• Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Then lower the heat to 350 and cook until it puffed and brown. A fork should come out clean in the center, 45 to 60 minutes,
• Sift powdered sugar over top and cut into wedges.

The first time we just enjoyed it as is. The second time we we enjoyed it with a little high quality vanilla ice cream on the side.

Here are some sites where you can find more variations:

This site uses a little heavy cream in the batter.

This site adds the heavy cream and then amaretto which sounds yummy.

This site says it's Julia Childs recipe who adds a little cardamon.

Cooking with Amy also says it's Julia's but it's different from the last one.

This one uses brown sugar instead.

This one adds a little meyer zest which sounds interesting.

Have fun!