EASY AND HEALTHY CLAFOUTIS

This french clafoutis is one of the best fruit desserts where the juicy fruit is the star of the show: it’s healthy, delicious, inexpensive and comes together in no time!

Traditionally made with cherries, a clafoutis is actually delicious, elegant and versatile with any kind of fruit. I love apricots, but I also used to make it with pears, strawberries, frozen blueberries or cherries which come ready-pitted and cheaper than their fresh counterpart.

The fruit is cooked with a light batter, embarrassingly easy to make, which becomes puffed and golden in the oven. It’s similar to a baked custard, therefore, no rising or good baking skills are required.

Batter + fruit + oven … easy peasy, right?

Keep in mind that it isn’t a cake, you can’t store it for days. However, you can prepare the mix one day in advance, bake the clafoutis at the same time as you start the meal to ensure it is at just the right temperature when you want it: warm and melt-in-the-mouth is best!

What you need for this recipe:

• Fresh or frozen fruit
• Milk
• Eggs
• Whole wheat or white flour
• Unrefined cane sugar or white sugar
• Lemon
• Flaked almonds and almond extract (optional)

	Bake for 30 MINUTES.
	Fruit is the best source of sugar, and in this clafoutis you get plenty. Indeed, the recipe calls for only 60 grams of added sugar.  Unrefined cane sugar, compared to refined sugar, is much less processed and retains some of the molasses and moisture from the plant. However, the healthiest tip is more fruit and vegetables and less added sugar.  Apricots and other fruit lose nutrients during the baking because many vitamins are heat sensitive or soluble in water, but the fibre content varies only slightly which is a great bonus. Fiber is an important part of your diet, as it prevents constipation, helps control blood sugar and reduces the appetite, keeping you feeling fuller for longer. Switch from white flour to whole wheat flour which keeps its fibre content and many of its nutrients like vitamins and folate intact.  If you love this easy clafoutis, you might be interested also in these healthy dessert recipes: Healthy yogurt cake, blender healthy carrot cake, easy chocolate pudding… just to name a few recipes.
	If you don’t find a good deal on fruit at your local market, just go for frozen fruit: cheaper, definitely good for baking and ready to use. Cost of the recipe: approx $ 5 (6 servings)

What is great about clafoutis is its versatility. Once you have the general recipe fixed in your head, you can adjust it according to taste and circumstance: you can add a couple of egg yolks for a more custardy clafoutis, or you can swap milk with cream for a richer pudding.

For me, the lighter the better!

Print Recipe

APRICOT CLAFOUTIS

A delicious and juicy clafoutis loaded with apricots, healthy and super easy to prepare with a few basic ingredients.

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Total Time35 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Servings: 6 large servings

Author: Katia

Ingredients

• 8-10 Apricots (or 1 lb of frozen berries)
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tbs Whole wheat or all-purpose flour
• 60 gr unrefined cane sugar or white sugar
• 1/2 Lemon, zest
• 1/8 tsp almond essence (optional)
• 2 Tbs almonds, flaked (optional)
• butter to grease, or parchment paper

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350F, fan.
• Grease with butter or oil (or line parchment paper) a baking dish/cake tin (9 inches).
• Arrange the fresh or frozen fruit over the dish.
• In a bowl whisk the flour and sugar together. Form a well in the centre of the mixture and add the eggs. Gradually draw the flour into the eggs from the outside of the well, mixing well, then beat in milk a little at a time to form a smooth batter. Add lemon zest and almond extract.
  
• Pour the wet mixture over the fruit (as shown in the picture above) and scatter a good handful of flaked almonds on top (optional).
• Bake for about 30 minutes until golden and puffed up.
• Serve slightly warm and dusted with icing sugar.