Clafoutis with pears

Serves 6-8 Clafoutis is the lightestbaked creamy custard with soft fruit. I make it with pears, apricots, plums and figs. Make this an hour before serving. It only takes 20 minutes to prepare. You can also make it ‘boozy’, soaking the fruit in a tablespoon of corresponding liqueur – Poire Williams for the pears, plum brandy for plums and so on.

— 30g butter, for greasing

the pan — 120g caster sugar, plus

extra for dusting — 100ml whole milk — 150ml whipping cream — ½ vanilla pod, seeds only,

or ¼ tsp vanilla extract — 4 eggs — 20g plain flour — 500g perfectly ripe pears, cut lengthways into quarters or eighths

Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5.

Butter an ovenproof metal pan or ceramic dish and dust it with caster sugar.

Put the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan and heat to boiling point then remove from the heat.

Put the eggs in a bowl with the sugar and whisk them together. Add the flour and whisk until smooth, then pour the milk mixture in slowly, whisking all the time.

Scatter the pears over the base of the pan – you can arrange them neatly in a circle if you wish. Pour the batter around them, not over the top, and then put the pan in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the custard has puffed and coloured gold in places. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for one hour. Dust with caster sugar and serve.