bucking tradition … Chocolate Pear Clafouti

A friend of mine likes to collects stamps while traveling with a keen eye toward food related subjects.  They make a nice souvenir of time and place.  In whatever country she’s visiting, she’ll wander into a local post office and flip through the book of available stamps, always on the lookout for those featuring the local cuisine.  You might surprised at how many there are. (Have you seen the chocolate stamps Belgium is releasing with a flavored adhesive?) Flipping through her albums not long ago, I came across one in particular I thought was fabulous – a French ½ euro stamp featuring the classic dessert, clafouti. The United States needs to do more food related stamps.  As fond as I am of my Bob Fosse and Danny Thomas postage, I really like the idea of a fried chicken stamp.

Clafouti is a very homey, classic French dessert made of a baked custard studded with cherries.  The traditionalists in the Limousin region from which the recipe hails, leave the pits in the cherries, saying they deepen the flavor and add a hint of almond.  I’ve always found this to be a bit troublesome and really dislike spitting out cherry pits throughout dessert.  So I take the time to pit the cherries.  It’s just easier and removes that possibility that someone might crack a crown.

The texture of a well made clafouti delights me.  Custardy, ever so slightly toothsome, studded with sweet bits of fruit.  It’s exactly the kind of dessert that I love and comes together easily, quickly and simply.  Butter a dish, whisk some stuff together and bake.  Really.

The thing with a clafouti though, is that it is always cherries in a vanilla batter.  The French are nothing if not traditionalists and variations on a classic are few. While working in a restaurant in the French countryside, I asked the Chef about a variation on a particular classic recipe.  I was curious as to the how and why things were done in traditional Michelin starred kitchens.  He looked at me pointedly and said, “It is not done.”  I suspect that’s the case here as well.  You might see blackberries or perhaps plums in a clafouti, in which case it should properly be called a flaugnarde, as clafouti always contains cherries.  It is simply not done.

So what did I decide to do?  Change it up.  Completely.  Different flavors, different fruit.  I added booze.  What can I say, I’m an American and we’re not as tied to the old ways.  Respect them yes, absolutely, but don’t let them constrain.  Must be our cowboy pioneer spirit.  I made my clafouti chocolate, added dark rum and switched out the cherries for pears reminiscent of another French classic, Poire belle Hélène.  So yes, technically this would be a flaugnarde.  A Poire belle Hélène Flaugnarde.  That’s a mouthful, a delicious mouthful, but still … so I’m just going to call it a chocolate pear clafouti and be ok with that.

STRESS BAKING THERAPY FACTOR:  TRES MAGNIFIQUE.  Tradition be damned, this is stinkin’ delicious. The custard is dark, rich and chocolatey, with bits of sweet pears strewn throughout.  It’s good warm, room temp or even cold the next day for breakfast though my favorite is that elusive window, maybe within an hour of coming out of the oven, when the top crust is still crisp and sugary.  The best part?  This recipe is so good it seems so much more difficult to put together than the reality of stirring a few things together.  So make this.  Make this now.

on this blog 3 years ago: Marmalade Yogurt Cake
on this blog 2 years ago:  Mexican Hot Chocolate
on this blog 1 year ago: Double Chocolate Alfajores

CHOCOLATE PEAR CLAFOUTI
Serves 6

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, to grease the pan
2 ripe but firm Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and cut into ¼” slices.
½ cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar, divided
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons dark rum
3 large eggs
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup whole milk
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (about ½ cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Butter a 9” diameter glass or ceramic pie dish or baking pan.
3. Arrange cut pears in prepared dish, arranging prettily if you wish.  (Chances are good that your pretty design will be messed up when you pour the batter in but arrange anyway if you like.)
4. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate on top of the pears.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, ½ cup sugar and salt to blend.
6. Whisk in the flour and cocoa until smooth.
7. Add the milk, melted butter, vanilla and rum; whisk until smooth.
8. Pour the batter over pears and sprinkle with the remaining 2 Tablespoons sugar.
9. Bake until center is set and top is golden brown and crusty, about 45-50 minutes.
10. Before serving, sift powdered sugar generously over top.
11. Cut into wedges; serve warm or room temperature.  Keep any leftovers in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped.

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