Dessert, the Sweet Spot

[bloviatrix]

Thanks to Pingarina for spreading the love. I made a plum clafouti for dessert last night (using the batter recipe Omni posted). We enjoyed it enormously.

[helena]

the best clafoutis i ever tried was the one from Traunfeld's first herb book - pears poached in maple syrup and rosemary, the poaching liquid reduced and added to a clafoutis batter...

 

Fleming has an interesting recipe for pumpkin clafoutis - need to try it one of those days...

(another one of hers is for figs and concord grapes - sounds like worth making too)

[Daisy]

Helena, that pear variation sounds terrific.

[Abbylovi]

That pear/maple syurp variation does sound good. I wonder if this is the recipe?

[Daisy]

Sounds good to me.

 

And now I have a use for the maple syrup leftover from when my niece visited and I made French toast.

[helena]

yeo, that's the one - Traunfeld recommends using comice or barlett pears - i always used the latter - they're aromatic and the texture feels so right for clafoutis...

[Pingarina]

Helena, that sounds dreamy.

 

Last night's dessert was a green fig and peach clafouti. Mmm, those lovely late-summer reddish peaches from Terhune are so good this year.

[Abbylovi]

I've used this recipe with success many times, using apples:

 

http://www.saveur.com/article.jsp?ID=15154&typeID=120

Made this last night and lemme tell you that this is my kinda dessert recipe. For some reason even though I looooove desserts, I don't enjoy making them and rarely do so. I think one reason is because most of baking is so exact and what I love about cooking is that you can personalize it. It's much harder to do that with baking. Anyway, this recipe is very, very easy and the finished product is impressive looking. I'll make it again, and I know this is crazy-talk but I will use less butter. The taste of butter was overwhelming.

[Cathy]

 

Fleming has an interesting recipe for pumpkin clafoutis - need to try it one of those days...

(another one of hers is for figs and concord grapes - sounds like worth making too)

 

I tried the pumpkin clafoutis and was underwhelmed...I think Wingding told me it was one of the very few clunkers in the book.

 

Last night I made Claudia's plum crisp (the topping is ground walnuts, brown and white sugar, flour, cinnamon, cardamom, melted butter). Delicious, and so easy it practically jumps into the oven by itself.

[Lippy]

Lest you think that Cathy is just tootling her own horn, let me confirm the deliciousness of the plum crisp.

[Cathy]

The horn to toot is Locust Grove's, which supplied the wonderful plums.

[wingding]

Mulberry pie;a friend gifted me with some mbs' from the west coast this summer,and I froze them.Feeling nostalgic for pie making lately...defroze them,and made an all butter lattice crust.Of course the berries ran over,and the crust suffered in a few places,but twas delicious anyway.

[Abbylovi]

That pear/maple syurp variation does sound good. I wonder if this is the recipe?

helena thank you for pointing out this recipe, it was amazing. The only thing that I'll change next time is that I'll slice the pears instead of leaving them halved. I know it looks purty but I just like the finished product better with sliced pears.

 

helena: is the entire book worth getting?

[memesuze]

I tried the maple pear one - I too would slice the pears. but, all in all, if I were to make a clafouti again, I'd use Paula Wolfert's cherry clafouti from the Cooking of Southwest France - more substance to it. I was underwhelmed by Traunfeld's version.

[helena]

helena: is the entire book worth getting?

 

i havent' cooked from it for a while - but the duck breast marinated in coriander seeds, lemon zest and mint was the best.

and i recall an interesting recipe involving carrot juice and scallops - always wanted to try it but never got to buying a juicer.

In any case check his new book: several things i made from it (roasted chicken with potato and fennel, and cuban pork come to mind) were quite good.