A clafoutis is a flavourful, super moist, dreamy dessert; fresh apricots provide a tart sweetness to a flan-like cake that’s best served warm with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream.
Well, Dear Reader, this was a fun recipe to make! I love to try making new recipes, and even though I find inspiration from other lovers of baking and cooking, I often will try to make a recipe my own by putting my own spin on the directions, the technique, or the ingredients themselves.
Such is the case with this recipe. A traditional clafoutis is a baked French dessert that is made with black cherries. It’s customary to leave the pits in the cherries while baking because the pits contain a amygdalin which is the active chemical in almond extract. Leaving the pit in, adds an almond-like flavour to the dessert. Since I didn’t use cherries, I didn’t need to concern myself with that, but I thought it to be a nice tidbit of foodie trivia.
Pronounced cla-foo-tee, the dessert comes from the Limousin region of France. It’s described as a baked dessert using stone fruit which has been arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. After being baked, the clafoutis is dusted with confectioner’s sugar and served warm.
In most cases, the warm oven-to-table dessert is served with ice cream or clotted cream. (I love clotted cream. If you never had it, get your hands on some and try it. It’s great even with a plain scone smeared liberally with homemade jam and a dollop of the cream. You’ll love it!)
Again, while black cherries are traditional, any stone fruit will do just fine. I’d certainly suggest removing the pits though. I think it just makes the dessert a little easier to enjoy and since this is such a great dessert for a dinner party, you might not want your guests spitting out the pits of fruit into your good napkins!
You can certainly use black or red cherries, plums, prunes, apples, pears, cranberries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and even smaller berries such as blueberries and blackberries will do just fine.
Whatever you decide, just go for it! Easy, fast, delicious, and most certainly, pretty! Save your very best ice cream for this one and bring it right to the table in the pie plate or skillet – that’s part of the charm. Enjoy!
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Fresh Apricot Clafoutis
Ingredients
- 14 fresh apricots, halved and pitted
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, for greasing pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees and heavily grease a pie plate with unsalted butter.
- Arrange the apricots, cut side down, in the pie plate until the entire surface of the plate has been covered.
- Add the flour, salt, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract and milk to a blender. Pulse until all ingredients are combined and the result is a thin batter.
- Pour the batter over the apricots. Place the pie plate in the oven and bake for 60 minutes. Once the top is very lightly golden in colour, remove from oven and let rest 10-15 minutes before serving.

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“A party without cake is just a meeting.” – Julia Child
Vera says
I’ve always wanted to try this recipe and you’ve just helped me along. Thank you for posting! I will use my basket of peaches for this one.
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Thanks, Vera. I’ve never tried it with peaches, but sounds so good! Make sure you have vanilla ice cream on hand. 🙂
Patricia Bartels says
Bake at 200 degrees for 60 minutes. That doesn’t seem right.
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Hi Patricia – yes, the time and temperature are accurate. This is a slow-bake recipe.