I kind of secretly love when the weather suddenly changes and there is an icy cold nip in the air. I love wrapping up and going for walks in the park and watching the crispy golden leaves drop slowly to the ground. It’s a time for warm inviting fires and hot nourishing comfort food. This clafoutis is just the recipe for these golden autumnal days. Imagine warm pancakes, boozy apples and bittersweet blackberries all mixed together into one delicious hot pudding. Well, that’s essentially what this clafoutis is. It’s a simple pancake batter, with some apples that have been soaked in rum and some fresh blackberries. It’s a great recipe for this time of year, as apples are at their peak, and if you can’t get fresh blackberries, a handful of blueberries would work equally well. This dessert is like a warm hug on a cold day. It’s a little more exotic than an apple tart with a generous serving of rum to make it rich and moreish. The texture is silky and creamy when served piping hot straight from the oven. It’s even more delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or freshly whipped cream. As we now have our very own little apple tree 🙂 I have made this dessert twice in the last two weeks. It’s really easy to make, and is a great dessert to warm you up on a cold October evening.
Ingredients
Apples
• 300g of apples, peeled cored and sliced into segments
• 80g of castor sugar
• 60ml of spiced rum / brandy / Cognac
Batter
• 280ml of milk
• 80g of sugar
• 80g of flour
• 3 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 5-10 fresh blackberries / blueberries
Method
Put the sliced apples, castor sugar and alcohol into a large bowl. Allow the apples to soak in the alcohol and sugar for about an hour.
Once the apples have been macerated, preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.
Then, put the milk, sugar, flour, eggs and salt into a food processor. Blend together for a few minutes until all the ingredients have combined and you have a thin creamy batter. Pour about quarter of the batter into a 9 inch/ 23 cm oven proof skillet. Place the skillet with the batter on the stove top over a medium heat. Cook for a few minutes, until the bottom of the batter is beginning to set. This is just to get a nice solid base for your clafoutis, so all the fruit won’t sink to the bottom.
Take the skillet off the heat, and then spoon in the apples, and pour the boozy liquid evenly over the top of the batter. Scatter the fresh blackberries on top of the clafoutis.
Put the clafoutis into the preheated oven and bake for about 45-60 minutes. To test if it is cooked, you can insert a sharp knife in the centre of the clafoutis and if it comes out clean, the clafoutis is cooked.
Serve the clafoutis warm, with a scoop of ice-cream or some freshly whipped cream.
