North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

I'm surprised to read the recipe, as I had read about pear clafoutis as the sort of standard French dessert.  The recipes I have found are more cake-like, less custard-like. 

 

Here on six recipes I found online.  This one has a nice photo at http://www.domesticgoddess.ca/recipes.php?recipe=10178

 

pear clafoutis

This is a simple dessert - so simple it can be whipped up immediately prior to guests arriving. Clafoutis are my fall-back when I wish I had made a pie but I don't feel like wrestling with pastry.

ingredients:

	4 large eggs
	½ cup granulated sugar
	1/8 teaspoon salt
	1/3 cup all purpose flour
	1 cup whole milk
	¼ cup butter, melted
	1 teaspoon vanilla extract
	½ teaspoon maple extract
	½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
	3 large pears, peeled, cored, sliced
	Powdered sugar
	Maple Syrup

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325�F. Generously butter 9-inch-diameter glass or ceramic pie plate.

2. Beat eggs, sugar and salt in medium bowl to blend. Whisk in flour. Add milk, butter, vanilla and maple extracts and cinnamon - whisk until smooth.

3. Arrange pears in bottom of prepared plate. Pour custard over pears.
Bake until clafoutis is set in center and golden on top, about 55 minutes.

4. Sprinkle powdered sugar over and serve with maple syrup on the side.

after-thoughts:

I think this would be a great tart to brul�e the top of - sprinkle it with granulated sugar rather than powdered and then torch or broil until browned and crispy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

I remember that my mom would make this on special occasions when I was little. I would always get so excited when I saw it resting in the kitchen. I couldn't wait to eat some! I was fascinated by the rows of pears, totally mystified by how she got them to look so pretty. Now I know that the trick is a very sharp knife, a "trick" that is useful in just about every activity that involves knives.

The pear clafoutis tastes like a cross between a custard and a dutch baby pancake - light but custardy. The texture really compliments the pear, as the whole thing is soft and slightly chewy, neither crispy nor mushy at all. Just how I remembered it.

Pear Clafoutis

4 ripe pears, preferably bartlett

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk ( I used skim)

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 425F.

Peel pears. Slice in half and remove cores and stems. Slice crosswise every 1/4-1/8 inch and fan around a 10 inch round baking dish, stem ends facing into the center. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar.

In a food processor, blend all remaining ingredients until smooth, about 10 seconds. Pour mixture on top of pears.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425F. Turn oven down to 350F and bake an additional 20-25 minutes, until clafoutis is golden brown and a tester comes out clean.

Serves 8.

The clafoutis will fall a little bit as it cools. I'm sure that this could easily be whisked together by hand. Serve it warm with a drizzle of butterscotch or caramel topping.
Leftovers can be chilled and eaten for breakfast.

------------------------------------------------------------

By popular demand, the recipe for the delicious pear dessert. This recipe is adapted from Julia Child’s in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Pear Clafoutis:

Peel, core and slice three bosc pears (or another firm variety). In a pyrex baking dish, pour 1/4 cup cognac and 1/3 cup granulated sugar over the pear slices and let sit for a couple of hours.

Preheat over to 350

Into a blender, put the following:

1 1/4 cup milk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 tb vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

2/3 cup sifted flour

Blend until the consistency of thin pancake batter

Pour a 1/4 inch layer of batter into a lightly buttered, fireproof baking dish or tart mold, that is about 1 1/4 inch deep. Set over moderate heat for a minute until a film of batter has set in the bottom of the dish. Remove from heat.

Lay the pear slices in a pattern like the spokes of a wheel on top of the layer of batter.

Pour some of the batter on top of this layer and then add a few more pear slices.

Pour in the rest of the batter until it is just below the rim of the baking dish.

Set carefully into the pre-heated oven and bake for about an hour.

The clafoutis is done when it is puffed and browned and when a needle plunged into the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar and serve warm with a dollop of creme fraiche.

------------------------------------------------

Ingredients: 3 cups cream, 7 eggs 80g butter 12tblspns sugar 12tblspns ground almonds 6tblspns kirsch Directions: Whisk together eggs,sugar,cream & almonds. Melt butter and wisk in last,pour mixture over poached pears either in a baking dish or tart form with pastry.Bake at 175degrees celsius until custard is just set.