All That's Left Are The Crumbs: Raspberry Clafoutis

December 20, 2023

Raspberry Clafoutis - #TheCakeSliceBakers

A Raspberry Clafoutis is a rustic French dessert with a creamy, custard-like texture and sweet bites of raspberry throughout.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm with a dollop of whipped or vanilla ice cream for the perfect dessert.

This is the final cake that the The Cake Slice Bakers are baking from Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano. There is certainly a great variety of cake recipes included in this book - which is over 300 pages long - and I did enjoy learning about the cakes Parisians like to bake at home. Stay tuned as we will soon be announcing the book we will bake from next year!

The Cake Slice Bakers are a group of dedicated bakers who all love cake. Each year we choose a new cake-centric cookbook and bake our way through it. Every month we are given 3 choices and on the 20th day of each month we reveal what we have chosen on our blogs. However, the tradition for our final bake in December is the choice of any cake in the book. As I recently fractured my ankle and I am in a boot for the next 4 weeks, I decided that I needed something easy to bake. Of course I wanted something delicious too so I chose to make a Raspberry Clafoutis.

I did enjoy the simplicity of this recipe. Minimal effort to put together but big reward with the end result, which was very enjoyable. I used raspberries, but blackberries, cherries, or blueberries - or a mix - would a great choices too, and I served it with crème fraîche as I like that is has a slightly sour taste which offsets the sweetness of this dessert. The word clafoutis (pronounced klafuti) translates to batter pudding (with fruit). My husband asked what I was baking and when I described it as a cross between a flan and a cake, he called it a flake, and honestly it has kind of stuck now 🤣. I also saw a recipe for an apple version in a magazine that I plan on trying soon. As mentioned above this is the final cake from this book, and honestly, I have had a love-hate relationship with it. I found some of the instructions in the recipes a little strange - one example, why would I mix some of the ingredients together, then be instructed to fold in the flour, and then be told to add the liquid ingredients and beat it - doesn't that defeat the purpose of folding something in to maintain the air and make it light? I would also have liked to have seen some photographs in the book, rather than just a few drawings. Maybe it is just me as the other members of our CSB group seem to have liked the book. I am, however, excited by our book for 2024 - stay tuned as it will be announced soon!

Raspberry Clafoutis

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients

200g (1 cup) granulated sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
75 (¾ cup) almond flour
½ teaspoon salt
90g (¾ cup) all-purpose flour
240ml (1 cup) whole milk
225ml (1 cup) heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
255g (1½ cups) fresh or frozen raspberries
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Preparation

Heat your oven to 190 ℃ (375 ℉).
Grease a 25cm (10-inch round or equivalent oblong) gratin pan with butter and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the sugar.
Add the rest of the sugar and the eggs to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium-low for three minutes.
Add the almond flour and salt and beat to combine.
Sift the all purpose flour into the bowl with a mesh sieve and fold it in.
Beat in the milk, cream, and vanilla for about three minutes.
Let the batter rest for 10 minutes, and then give it a whisk to combine the ingredients again.
Pour the batter into the prepared dish and sprinkle the raspberries evenly over the top.
Bake the clafoutis for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the center of the clafoutis is set.
Allow to cool for a few minutes, then dust with the powdered sugar, and serve straight away.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

This is our last cake from Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes, which we have enjoyed baking through. Stay tuned as we will be announcing the next cake-centric book we will be baking through in 2023 soon!

Traditionally our last bake for the year is free choice, and our choices for December 2023 were ~

Raspberry Clafoutis