AYE: Go Local! Blackberry Peach Clafoutis

Yes, I know, another clafoutis. It is becoming a bit of a new obsession around our house. What can I say? Is it because it is A) Delicious, B) Easy, C) Versatile, D) All of the Above. Yup, you guessed it. The answer is "D" - all of the above. Seriously, what's not to love. You can put just about anything in it you want, be traditional, or not. I think that next I want to try a savory version, but I promise that in the future, I will group any more clafoutis posts together before this becomes the All Clafoutis, All the Time Blog!

So, the reason I'm posting this one so quickly on the tail end of my previous posts is two-fold. One, is that if you haven't gone and drooled over the incredible round-up of clafoutis on Bron's site right now for the Hay Hay It's Donna Day - #19 Clafoutis Edition, then you need to. You can look through all the amazing entries from many lovely bloggers and even email a vote for your favorite to Bron before May 9th. If, by chance, you aren't familiar with this wonderful event - well, then you should be! This event was created by the so lovely Barbara of winosandfoodies. It was the first food blogging event I participated in and it has been such fun to participate every month.

As I mentioned, Bron Marshall was the host (again) for this last round and now, in case you didn't hear, Bron is adopting the HHDD Event in the future as requested by Barbara. You can read more about that here and here.

The second reason you are getting another one is that because Mrs. W and I hosted the Art You Eat #3 Event this past month with a theme of Go Local! to help celebrate Earth Day. We chose to concentrate on not only sustainability, but the use of local produce and other products. The point was to become more aware of where our food comes from and to try to focus on "local" (within 7 to 8 hours away) products.

For me, that ended up being Tuesday morning's breakfast of a Blackberry Peach Clafoutis. The blackberries are leftovers frozen from last summer's farmers markets and the peaches come from local growers nearby as well. I bottled the peaches last summer when and the eggs and flour both came from a local farm and mill, respectively. The milk and butter also come from a local dairy. I also used dark brown sugar, which of course, is not local, but the point is to use as much local as possible. So, while my ingredients were not "fresh" I wanted to go that route to show that you can preserve items that you use yourself and control what goes into it and have local accessibility more.

For anyone in the Salt Lake City area, just an FYI that the Live Green - Downtown Sustainability Festival is coming up next Saturday (May 10th). It looks like it should be interesting, educational and fun.

So, on to the recipe. Make sure you check out the Art You Eat blog for the round-up of this event and vote for your favorite.

Blackberry Peach Clafoutis
1 cup blackberries (fresh or if using frozen, do not thaw)
1/2 cup canned peaches (or fresh) cut into small bite size pieces
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons sugar
300 ml whole milk
3 large eggs
pinch of salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons butter

Preheat two 6-inch cast iron skillets in a 375 degree F oven on a baking sheet. In the meantime, whisk together the dark brown sugar, milk, eggs, and pinch of salt together in a pourable bowl or pitcher. When they are well combined and the sugar is fairly dissolved whisk in the flour.

Remove the skillets from the oven and melt 1 Tablespoon each of butter in the hot pans. Once the butter has melted, distribute the blackberries and peaches evenly between the two pans. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of sugar in each pan over the fruit. Pour equal amounts of batter into each pan over the fruit.

Place the pans on their baking sheet back into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until puffed and golden. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving (can also be served at room temperature).

Enjoy!

Blueberry Orange Clafouti

One more clafouti for Bron. I meant to make this last week, but the grocery store trip kept being elusive. Then, I figured I was out of time to make it for Bron's Clafouti Edition of Hay Hay It's Donna Day til I read this post that there was still time. Woo-hoo! This is only my second clafouti and I am seriously in love with this dish. Besides, since three of my favorite women keep talking about clafouti, I knew I had to try at least one more now while it was fresh in my mind. DH definately liked this version better (as evidenced by the fact that he plowed threw two dishes this morning) than the Chocolate Raspberry version I made before. While, I'm partial to the chocolate, this Blueberry Orange version was delicious.

Both times I have made this dish I've been struck by how simple and sublime it is. I think that this is where the French really excel in all things culinary. Taking few and simple ingredients and turning them into something simply amazing. Making this version this morning was absolutely cathartic for me. Measure, zest an orange, rub into sugar, smell the citrus, stir, pour, add beautiful fresh blueberries, sprinkle with some raw sugar and bake. Simple, easy, fun and relaxing. The perfect way to start the day! Since I still need to post the Blogging for Babies roundup this week, and have a couple of other challenges I'm working on, this is probably my last clafouti for Bron, but definately not my last clafouti I will be making!

Blueberry Orange Clafouti
(Adapted from and measurements based on Bron's Mixed Berry and Cherry Clafoutis)

1 pint of blueberries, fresh or frozen
300ml of whole milk
1/3 cup of caster/superfine sugar
4 tablespoons raw sugar (turbinado)
Finely grated zest of one large orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
pinch of salt
1 cup of all-purpose unbleached flour
icing / confectioners sugar to dust

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 deg C).

Place 4 x 250ml or 1 x 4 cup capacity strong heat proof dishes (i.e ones that won’t crack on cold liquid hitting them!) in the oven to preheat.

In a small bowl, rub the orange zest with the caster sugar thoroughly until very moist, fragrant and orange.

Next, in a large pouring jug or blender whisk together the milk, the orange caster sugar, vanilla, eggs, salt and flour.

Remove the heated dishes from the oven and divide the blueberries evenly between them. Sprinkle with the raw sugar, then evenly ladle over the egg mixture.

Quickly return to the oven and bake the individual dishes for 15 to 20 minutes, or 1 large dish for 35 to 40 minutes until puffed up, golden and cooked through.

Dust with icing sugar, serve warm or at room temperature.

Clafoutis - Fun to Say, Better to Eat

I had never made clafoutis, but since Bron chose the next round of HHDD to be the Clafoutis Edition, I knew I would be making it this month. After I read her post, I started getting all kinds of ideas for what flavor combinations I would make. While Autumn is starting for Bron, Spring is just starting here.

I think that is a big part of the fun in blogging - getting to know about life in other areas of the world vicariously through others. The fact that we all share the same passion for food and creating wonderful things to eat makes it a simple and natural bond.

And speaking of simple and natural combinations - that is exactly what I thought of clafoutis. I honestly don't know why I've waited so long to make clafoutis - I know I won't wait very long before I make it again. Since Bron opened this round up to multiple entries, I think this might just be my first of a few. I really enjoyed this dish, and since you can serve it either hot or at room temperature, I tried it both ways. I think that room temperature was actually my favorite.
For my first flavor combination, I decided to play off of another of Donna's recipes, the Raspberry Spiked Brownies, I made a couple of weeks ago. While I've read that clafouti(s)? (I don't know which is appropriate - either way it is still really good to eat!) is traditionally using cherries, there just aren't any good cherries here yet. I'm sure there are purists who wouldn't put chocolate into a clafoutis either, but I liked it. Perhaps if I had had it the traditional way first, I would feel the same. So, my recipe is by no means traditional and ended up being a lot more like dessert even though I had already decided to try making my first clafoutis as breakfast. Yeah, there is a trend of eating treats for breakfast going on here - I still don't feel bad about it.

As always much thanks to Barbara for creating this event and a big thank you to Bron for her theme choice. I really enjoyed making this and I like the flexibility to play around with the flavors while it still being a simple dish to make and eat. I just based my recipe off of the one Bron posted for the Plum and Chocolate Clafoutis - from Donna Hay’s Original Recipe. I also replaced the dark chocolate in the original recipe with white chocolate chunks. I didn't increase the amount of cocoa powder I used in the recipe, but the cocoa I use is 100% Extra Brut Cocoa from Callebaut and is very very dark. I imagine that would be why my chocolate version looks so much darker than Bron's did.

Raspberry Double Chocolate Clafoutis
1/3 cup (50g/1 3/4oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
1/4 cup (30g/1oz) cocoa powder, sifted
1/3 cup (75g/2 2/3oz) caster (superfine) sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup (8 fl oz) (single or pouring) cream
1 cup chopped white chocolate
20g (3/4 oz) unsalted butter
1/2 cup red raspberries (fresh, not frozen)

Preheat the oven to 180degC (355degF).

Place the flour, cocoa and sugar in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, place the vanilla, eggs and cream and stir to combine.

Add the vanilla mixture to the flour mixture and whisk to combine.

Stir in the chocolate.

Divide the butter between 2 x 2 cup (500ml/16 fl oz) capacity 13cm (5in) frying pans over a medium heat until melted. (The only pans I had to use for this were cast iron and they worked perfectly).

Pour over the chocolate mixture, top with the plum halves and bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and cooked through.

Makes 2.