Berry Clafouti

Lynyrd Skynyrd once sang, "Ooh that smell, can't you smell that smell".  I like to believe they were singing about the heavenly scent of berry clafouti baking in the oven, but really they were singing about the “smell of death”; naturally.   I first made clafouti, a traditional French tart, with three strangers at a group cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education. 

I was teamed up with an older couple who shuffled around each other, tentatively searching for kitchen tools, and a tall boulder of a young man who didn’t smile or move his head, but confidently set up our mise en place as the rest of us bumbled around; he was not new to ICE’s recreational classes. 

As we finished combining the ingredients for our batter, we noticed a measuring cup full of sugar sitting on our prep table.  We all turned our heads slowly back to the bowl of batter realizing that we had added three fourths of a cup of iodized salt to it.

The men got to work on a new batter while the lady and I tried to save the fresh berries by washing the salty batter off of them.  At the end of the class, we got to chow down on the fruits of our labor.  Fruits indeed.  We ate the clafouti hot, straight from the oven, its berries bleeding into its soft cakey, custardy body. A ball of vanilla ice cream was the "cherry on top" that melted into a cold, creamy contrast to the hot cake below. As long as you don’t have your salt and sugar mixed up, the recipe below should deliver a beautiful clafouti experience.  Ooh that smell...

 

RECIPE (Adapted from Institute of Culinary Education’s All About Technique: Roast Saute and Steam class clafouti recipe)

Makes 8 servings

1 to 2 cups raspberries or blueberries
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Confectioners' sugar, for serving(optional)

Vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Butter and flour a 9-inch pie pan.  Scatter the berries evenly in the dish and set aside.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and sugar and blend well; set it aside.

3.  In a small bowl, combine the eggs, cream and vanilla. Whisk until well
blended. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Slowly, in a thin
stream, whisk in the egg mixture to form a smooth batter. Let the batter rest for 15 to 20
minutes.  If you’re impatient, let it rest for 5 minutes; it’ll still taste good.

4.  Pour the batter over the fruit and bake until the batter has just set and the
surface has a light golden color, 25 to 30 minutes. 

5.  Just before serving, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.  I recommend serving it hot, right away with vanilla ice cream but it can also be enjoyed warm or at room temperature.


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