Frangipane Caflooties

There's a great brunch place downtown. Clafoutis. My dad says cah-flooties. I haven't been yet but he really likes it there.

I made a good many clafoutis this winter. A clafoutis is most traditionally done with cherries. It's a sweet batter thats tossed slightly with the fruit and baked to a custardy finish. For Christmas I did a big one with plums. Mostly I'll prepare the fruit in some way. Poach it. Caramelize it. Plums are never in season around here. I've been using these luscious plums out of the can. The company Oregon has a line I love. Also cherries. Gooseberries. Others. The plums are in this fantastic syrup that's perfect to serve with a Monte Cristo. Stones need to be removed. These plump rich purple egg shaped beauties are tart tart and still have the skin. The pits pop out easily and I let them sit and dry out a bit in the sieve. Pears I'll poach or most of the time let them sear and sizzle in butter and sugar and lemon juice and ground cardamom, until a glassy brown coats them. Pear or plum are my favorite.

The pear caramelizing technique goes as follows:

The pears should be hard but not rocks. Cut to quarter wedges for this dish. Peeled. My favorite kind of pan to use for this is seasoned carbon steel with a good curved shape to flip them around in. Start with a light film of oil. Get the pan smoking hot. Put in not too many pears. Let them crackle and sear and sit there. Throw in a pat of butter. It should smoke some and brown. Gratinee. A splash of lemon juice and a few sprinkles of sugar. Keep the pan hot hot. Shake it. Shake hard and flip them fast if they stick. This is a very cavalier thing. You can burn yourself. Maybe a splash more lemon juice, and more sugar. The sugar should almost burn and caramelize. Throw in a sprinkle or two of ground cardamom. Let it sit and let a fa few sear too much. Do it two or three times to have the amount you want. Too many pears in the pan will ruin the effect. It also works great for apples and cinnamon obviously.

At any rate. The clafoutis I make aren't even real clafoutis. I've been making them in a medium sized cast iron pan. I line the pan with puff pastry in rustic lips that hang over the edge of the pan. The edges get brushed with egg and sprinkled with course ground sugar and baked with beans in the way one pre bakes a pie shell. They've become these huge custard pies with crust. But really they are a combination of a frangipane and a clafoutis. The batter I make is similar to a frangipane batter in that it has eggs, sugar, cream, and marzipan, almond extract, vanilla. But its heavier and there's more of it. The pan is pretty deep. I add a little flour. I'll have to post a real recipe. I usually use about four eggs and no more than 3/4 of a cup of flour. When given a good spanking in the kitchen-aid the result should be a frothy, silky batter with proper ribbons and lots of air. The marzipan might give it a broken look. After piling the pears in and around the pan of pastry I slowly fill the rest of the space with batter much like a typical frangipane.

So the batter doesn't cover the fruit. I pile two or three pears on top of each other to get this effect in the pan.

It should take a solid two hours of non convection 275 degree heat. The pastry will insulate the batter from souffling and it should set like a large cream brulee. Watch it closely. It's finished when the center still jiggles but doesn't want to.

I did a large one in my Paella pan of all things for a larger party and it looked really old world, with the brown flaky sediments of pastry curling all around it.

Dad still called it a ca-flootie. Actually I just said, here dad, I made a ca-flootie. He doesn't care about all the rest. It is a totally delicious dessert though.