eggs on sunday

“Clafouti”…fun to say, but even more fun to eat! (Actually, I’m not sure if it’s “clafouti” or “clafoutis.” I’ve seen it written both ways, and I think either is acceptable. We’ll just go with “clafouti,” shall we?)

This was actually my first clafouti. I’ve been meaning to make one now for about a month. I think about making one every week, and every week for some reason I’ve gotten sidetracked. One of the things I love about blogging is all the events you can participate in — Sugar High Fridays, Daring Bakers, Weekend Herb Blogging, etc. — but sometimes it’s hard to fit everything in! About a month ago, I saw that the theme for April’s Hey Hey it’s Donna Day event was going to be clafoutis, and I thought to myself, “great! now’s my chance to finally give this dessert a try.”

Well, April came and went, and I never got a chance to sneak in that clafouti. So, this week I finally have made up for that — though this was my first clafouti, it will NOT be my last. No, no, no…I *loved* this dessert. I had a feeling I would love it — all clafouti descriptions I’ve run across thus far say that it’s a cross between a baked custard and a pancake/crepe (YUM) — and it was delicious, plus really easy, to boot. A traditional clafouti has cherries in it (can’t wait to try that in the summer), but there are so many variations out there using just about any fruit imaginable. I used a bag of frozen blackberries, no need to defrost them, and they baked up beautifully into the clafouti.

I am (almost) embarrassed to say that when I cut myself a wedge of this to try, I scarfed it down in about 10 seconds. No joke. I guess that’s just a testament to how good it was…I would eat this for breakfast, afternoon snack, or dessert. There’s just endless variations you could do; the roundup from HHDD - Clafouti Edition is up and there are just so many clafoutis I want to try!

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Blackberry Lemon Clafouti

Adapted from this recipe on Cookthink (from the Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology)

Ingredients
one 10-oz bag frozen organic blackberries
1/4 cup sugar (I used some vanilla sugar I had, but regular would be fine)
4 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice (half a lemon)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (from half a lemon)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 or 10-inch pie pan.

Empty the bag of frozen berries into the pie pan, arranging them in a single layer. I didn’t even bother defrosting the berries.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs together until they begin to foam. Gradually mix in the sugar. Combine the milk and cream, then slowly add them to the egg/sugar mixture in a thin stream while the mixer is running. Reduce the mixer speed to low, and gradually add the salt and flour. Increase the speed and beat until well combined. Mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest.

Pour the batter over the blackberries. Bake for 20 minutes, then cover with foil and continue to bake until set, another 20 minutes or so. I took the foil off towards the end to try to get a little light browning on mine — and took it out of the oven when it was completely set.

Cut into wedges, dust with powdered sugar (if you like), and serve.

Serves 8.