Please excuse this picture, its a plum clafoutis and I wanted to take a picture of the cherry one but it disappeared too fast.Clafoutis is one of my daughter's favourite desserts but I always find it difficult to dish up, it sticks a bit to the dish and although tastes delicious doesn't look pretty on a plate so I made this clafoutis tart to demo at food festivals. Its so simple to make, delicious and easy to serve. You can make it the day before wrap in foil and warm in the oven before you serve. It doesn't want to be piping hot just a nice gentle warmth.Traditionally made with cherries you can use almost any stoned fruit but steer clear of fruits with a lot of water in them, eg. rhubarb and gooseberries would be far too wet but plums and apricots work very well. Leave out the almonds if you prefer and add an extra tablespoon of flour and flavour with vanilla. Delicious!Clafoutis TartTime: 1 ½ hoursServes: 8 – 10INGREDIENTSFor the pastry:

100g Butter (salted or unsalted) - softened
1 large egg yolk
50g Icing Sugar
½ tsp Almond extract
160g Plain Flour

For the filling:

400g Fresh Cherries stones removed (you can use plums or apricots)
2 Large eggs
2 Egg yolks
50g Ground almonds
2 tbs Plain flour
100g Caster sugar
½ - 1 tsp Almond extract
250ml Double Cream

25cm Loose bottomed flan tinMETHODMake the pastry:

Beat together the butter, egg yolk, icing sugar and almond extract.
Stir in the flour and bring together into a smooth dough, do not overwork.
Wrap in baking paper and chill the dough for 20 minutes.

Line the flan tin:

Preheat the oven to 160C
Grease the tin with a little butter.
Roll out the pastry and gently lift into the prepared tin. The pastry is delicious but fragile so don’t panic if it tears simply patch the pieces into the tin leaving a little overhang in case the pastry shrinks. It can look like a patchwork on the inside it will look fine on the outside, it doesn’t have to be neat.
Line the uncooked pastry case with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Place the tin onto a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove paper and beans and bake for another 5 minutes. With a sharp knife trim any pastry overhang.
Lightly beat the eggs and brush a layer over the inside of the pastry case. Pop it back into the oven for 5 mins until the egg has cooked and has created a shiny layer. This will help stop a soggy bottom. Remove from the oven.

Make filling:

Add the almonds, plain flour, caster sugar, almond extract and cream to the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.
Put the cherries into the cooked pastry case and pour over the filling.
Place in preheated oven for 25 – 30 minutes until the mixture does not wobble, remove from oven.
Allow to cool and remove from tin.
Serve warm but not hot with a sifting of icing sugar.

NOTE:

Try this with any stoned fruits but not something like rhubarb which creates too much juice.
If you make this tart ahead of time, store in the fridge then wrap in foil and warm through just before serving.

JANE BEEDLE

Gluten Free Gingerbread