Rustic French dessert transcends the pancake
Like some French-country dishes, a clafoutis sounds like something fancy and complicated, but it’s actually homey and easy to make.
The fruit-laden dessert pancake is elegant in its simplicity — glorious, golden brown and sugar dusted. And nearly all it entails is making a basic pancake batter, pouring it into a pie dish, adding the fruit and baking it.
The accompanying recipe is a more healthful yet equally sumptuous take on the classic, using tender whole-grain pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour, and honey instead of refined sugar. It also calls for low-fat milk, but whole milk would be fine as well.
The taste of the honey shines through beautifully here, and its flavour is lovely with the fresh raspberries but feel free to use whatever fruit looks good at the market.
Honey Whole-Wheat Clafoutis with Raspberries MAKES 6 SERVINGS
2 large eggs, beaten
½ cup low-fat (1 per cent) milk
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1½ teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
9 ounces (2 cups) fresh raspberries
1 tbsp confectioners’ sugar, for serving
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-inch pie plate or ceramic dish with cooking oil spray.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, honey, butter, lemon zest and salt in a mixing bowl until well incorporated, then gradually whisk in the flour, to form a smooth batter.
Pour into the pie plate, then add the raspberries; top sides down will help them to stay upright as you work. Bake (middle rack) for 40 to 50 minutes, until the clafoutis is golden brown and centre is set.
Dust the top with confectioners’ sugar and serve right away.
Per serving: 170 calories, 4 grams protein, 27 g carbohydrates, 6 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 75 milligrams cholesterol, 85 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fibre, 14 g sugar