Recipe – Apple Clafoutis

I subscribe to the Living Without recipe newsletter and it graces my inbox with an assortment of recipes, some of which I can’t even look at, some I can adapt to my nefarious uses, some that are just brilliant.

The most recent sending falls somewhere between the last two.

Apple Clafoutis.

I’d never even heard of it.  I guessed it was French.  Seems it comes from the Limoges region of France and is traditionally made with cherries.  It’s kind of like the lovechild of a Dutch pancake and a quiche.  Someone else described it as a fruity Yorkshire pudding.

As I read through the ingredients, I began to get excited.  Apples, natch.  We’d just bought a 40 lb box of Pink Lady apples from my veg co-op, mostly for juicing for the husband, but apples are one of the safer fruits for me, so it was a win all around.  It had only one half cup of sugar, which I felt quite confident I could omit with no ill effect (for the recipe.  If I didn’t omit it, I’d certainly have an ill effect…).  I even had all the required ingredients.  So, Sunday, I set to makin’ me a dessert.

It didn’t disappoint.

Sugar-free Apple Clafoutis (adapted from the Living Without recipe)

• 3 cups sliced apples (the original recipe called for tossing with 2 tablespoons sugar, but sugar ain’t my friend.  Additionally, I seem to think 3 cups ended up being 3-ish medium sized apples, cored, but unpeeled.)
• 3 eggs
• 1½ cups almond milk (use whatever milk you happen to like or tolerate.  I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk, which worked quite well)
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¾ cup rice flour
• ¼ cup sweet rice flour (I thought I’d had some in my pantry, but I was out.  I substituted tapioca starch, which seemed to work just fine)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Combine all ingredients sans the apples and blitz until smooth.  Grease the pan of your choice (the original called for a 9-inch pie pan.  I used a 9×9 square baking dish (my brownie pan!).  You could easily use some sort of corning ware dish.  I bet this would be fantastic in a deep cast iron pan, too, kind of a la pineapple upside down cake, or the Dutch pancake I alluded to earlier) and line it with the apple slices.  I kept my slices regular, between 1/4 – 1/8 inch, and layered them prettily (kind of like those apple tart things you see with the circular apples slices).  Give your wet mixture a good mix, then pour one-third of the batter over the apples.  Bake this for 15 minutes, until the fruit sets.  Remove from oven and pour over the remaining batter.  Place back in oven for another 45 minutes.  The top will be a light golden brown when done.  Let cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes.  Then dig in!

* The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of sugar as well.  I omitted this one, too.  For me, the fruit provides enough sweetness.  Because of this, I can have a normal-sized piece of the stuff for dessert (or breakfast!) and not have to worry about the sugar content.  I’m up to tolerating 2-3 pieces of fruit a day (though not all together), so I felt this dessert to be well within my tolerances.

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