Clafouti is a eggy French custard that is usually served as a dessert, and is most often made with cherries. While looking for something unique to bring to a potluck brunch, I happened across a recipe on Serious Eats for a “Brunch Clafouti“, which is really no different from any other clafouti recipe. Even traditional dessert clafoutis fit in well for breakfast with their eggy, fruity flavors. It’s sweet but not too sweet, and it need no other adornment than a dusting of powdered sugar. While I considered going with the traditional cherries, or other berries which are also popular, I’ve been really taken lately with fresh figs, which have shown up in the grocery store in the last few weeks. The figs wouldn’t really work with the recipe from Serious Eats, but I found a recipe as part of an NPR story from last year for just the thing I was looking for. It happens to be based on the clafouti from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is experiencing a great upswing in popularity thanks to the movie Julie and Julia. My selection of this had nothing to do with this revival, but you can consider this my obligatory food blog contribution.

Clafouti batter is very thin, composed of milk, sugar, eggs, and a bit of flour. The one thing I added to this recipe that I took from the Serious Eats recipe was a little almond extract, which added a subtle almond flavor to the final project as well as the standard vanilla extract.

I don’t have a very functional blender, so instead of whirling the batter in that to blend it smoothly I used my hand mixer and beaters on a high setting. It worked sufficiently well, and though I could still see a few tiny clumps of flour left, it was not a big deal.

Mmmm, fresh ripe figs. They get quartered for this recipe. They do not need to be peeled, just washed; the skin is perfectly edible and part of their delicious flavor and texture.

The batter goes in the well greased pie pan, then the figs are placed fairly evenly around. French cooking has this reputation for being complicated, but this is one of the simplest recipes ever.

It inflates in the oven, and when you first take it out it’s still pretty puffy, but you can see it’s already starting to sink a bit.

Here it’s pretty much fallen completely. This is how clafoutis are: browned and slightly chewy on the perimeter and eggy, fluffy and custardy in the center.

It looks pretty dusted with powdered sugar. It is usually served warm, but it would probably be pretty tasty cold as well. As long as you greased the pan well enough, the slices should come right out. The taste of the figs and how they meld with the custard is probably pretty different from the berries or cherries in the original, but I think they make a great breakfast with their light, fresh flavor. I’d definitely make this again, for a dessert or a breakfast.

Fresh Fig Clafouti (adapted from NPR, adapted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup milk (low-fat or regular)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 figs, trimmed and quartered
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar such as turbinado (granulated may be substituted)
• Powdered sugar, for serving

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and coat a 9-inch cast iron skillet or pie plate generously with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Add the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, almond, salt and flour to a blender in that order so the flour does not cake onto the blade. Blend on high for 30 seconds. Scrape down any flour adhering to the sides and blend for 30 seconds more, or until smooth. Pour into the skillet.
3. Scatter the figs over the batter and sprinkle the raw sugar (or granulated, if substituting) on top.
4. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until clafouti is puffed and edges are golden brown. A thin knife inserted in the center should come out clean. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes (clafouti will collapse), sift powdered sugar over the top and serve warm.

Here they are: the first tomatoes from my garden. Small, but plump and red and juicy. What on earth was I going to cook with these, the first tomatoes I had ever grown myself? This frittata was born out of several things. First, I had lovely, fresh tomatoes, and I wanted to showcase them in something simple and something they wouldn’t disappear in. Second, we needed breakfast and I had eggs and cheese. Third, I didn’t want to wait for a breakfast casserole/quiche to bake forever in the oven, but I was bored of the standard omelet. And so the pan frittata was inspired. Not really a true frittata, which is usually cooked mostly on the stovetop and finished under a broiler, because the pans I have access to are not oven-safe, so all the cooking had to happen on the stovetop. In the end it did turn out to be a tasty breakfast that was filling and perfectly showcased the ripe, fresh tomatoes.

Six eggs and probably a cup of shredded cheese – what I had on hand, which turned out to be mixed cheddar and asiago. I ended up using more like a half to three-quarters of a cup of the cheese; I just added cheese to the eggs until it looked like enough for my tastes.

I sautéed a clove of garlic to give the frittata some extra flavor.

In go the eggs (beaten), cheese and the fresh tomato slices are laid on top. This is a small sauté pan (maybe 6 inches in diameter?), but the eggs will puff up a lot. I realized too late that this would have been awesome with some fresh basil or oregano from my garden. Oh well.

I let it cook, covered, for probably 8–10 minutes until the eggs were completely set and cooked through. If I had an oven safe pan, I probably would have let it cook on the stovetop for 3 minutes and then sprinkle it with more cheese and put it in the oven for another 3–4 minutes.

Like I said, it turned out to be a great way to showcase the lovely fresh tomatoes from my garden. It’s kind of like an omelet that never gets flipped over, and because it doesn’t get messed with the eggs stay really puffy. This was a quick and easy breakfast that I will probably make again; maybe I’ll even make a real frittata once I get some oven-safe pans.

Fresh Tomato Pan Frittata

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded cheese
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• olive oil
• a tablespoon or two of fresh herbs (optional)

Directions

1. Sauté garlic in enough olive oil to thoroughly coat the pan until browned and fragrant.
2. Combine the eggs and herbs in a small bowl. Pour eggs into a small sauté pan. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the surface and lay tomatoes on top.
3. Cover and cook over low heat for 8–10 minutes, or until eggs are cooked through.

I’ve never made a full size Dutch Baby aka Dutch Baby Bunny aka German Pancake, but I was intrigued by these small ones that are baked in muffin tins from Make and Takes. The unlike some recipes, this batter doesn’t include any sugar and isn’t inherently sweet, which apparently makes it equivalent to Yorkshire Puddings. For me, however, it will become sweet, eggy, Dutch baby pancakes.

I neglected to take any pictures of the batter before it was mixed together, but given the small number of ingredients it’s pretty straightforward. There are 6 eggs in this batter, which makes it supremely eggy, but when combined with flour and butter, the reaction is like magic…

Pop up! When they first came out of the oven they were really high, but then they sank down a little as they cooled.

This recipe makes enough to fill more than one 12-muffin pan, and the only other muffin pan I have makes gigantic muffins. I got three more out of the batter after filling the wells of standard muffin pan about half full, and those did some serious popping.

Doused with maple syrup and dusted with powdered sugar, these little Dutch baby pancakes were very tasty and made a great alternative to the same old buttermilk pancakes. As I mentioned, there’s actually no sugar in the batter, so these could even be used in a savory dish (which is after all what they are used for as Yorkshire Puddings).

Baby Dutch Baby Pancakes (courtesy of Make and Takes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• dash salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine.
3. Fill wells in a greased standard muffin pan about half full. You’ll likely have more than what will fill in one muffin pan, so have a second one ready for overflow.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until puffy and golden on top.