Apricot & Almond Clafoutis
Summer desserts are a thing of wonder. With so much fruit in abundance this time of year, there never seems to be a shortage of sweet things to enjoy.
Keeping them simple and showcasing the expression of the fruit itself seems to be the trick—plus that means making a delightful dessert is much easier to pull together on a hot day.
If you’ve never had (or made for that matter) a clafoutis you’re in for a real treat. It’s an effortless custardy French dessert that you can make with all sorts of fruit throughout the year.
The first time I encountered a clafoutis was when I was doing a kitchen apprenticeship at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in my mid-twenties.
I remember going down the breakfast line and seeing a hotel pan filled with fluffy blackberry-dotted custard steaming in the cool morning air. I spooned a bit into my bowl and with the first bite I was in heaven!
I always looked forward to that breakfast at the monastery and found that a bowl of warm clafoutis with a few splashes of cold milk was a decadent start to the day.
Traditionally, it’s made with un-pitted black cherries. The pits are an important part while it’s cooking since they lend a subtle almond flavor that gets infused into the custard.
If you’re not using whole cherries, you could always add a little almond extract, or in this case, use almond flour.
I was lucky to make this Apricot & Almond Clafoutis before the heatwave hit this week. If you’re like me, you’ll do just about everything in your power to not turn the oven on during the summertime.
Our 1940s farmhouse doesn’t have AC and our old Wedgewood stove does a great job warming up the whole kitchen, which is wonderful in the winter, but not ideal on sweltering days in the summer.
Luckily, this clafoutis only takes about 10 minutes to whip up and about 30 minutes in the oven. It’s also lovely served at room temperature, so you can bake it during the cooler part of the day and serve it later.
I swapped almond flour for wheat flour here, but if you don’t have any on hand you can find the Lemon Verbena & Pear Clafoutis recipe with flour I wrote about a few years back here.
The almond flour makes it a bit more hearty and gives a really nice flavor to compliment the sweetness of the apricots. I like to keep a bag of Bob’s Red Mill almond flour in the fridge when I need it for a gluten-free dessert.
If you want to add some fresh herbs from the garden, I suggest muddling them into the sugar. If they’re a bit too big to eat, like say whole chamomile flowers, remove them through a mesh strainer or sieve.
Otherwise, you can finely chop them and add them to the sugar before muddling. And when I say muddling I really mean mixing them with your fingers into the sugar until the sugar is fragrant.
Some herbs that would go well here are lemon verbena, chamomile, basil, roses, hyssop, tarragon, lavender, and lemon balm to name a few.
This is an especially good dessert to make for a crowd because it requires minimal ingredients and time. Plus—it’s so beautiful on its own, but topped with a few edible flowers and you have something special to share with the ones you love.
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