Pear Clafoutis. What's not to love?

People! Meet my new favourite dessert, Clafoutis. 

I can see many winter nights on my couch with a bowl of this custardy, flan-like goodness cradled in my hands. Clafoutis has always intrigued me and I’m disappointed in myself that it took me this long to make it. Clafoutis, where have you been all my life? Oh that’s right, on the tables of French bistros being served up to intellects and artistes (because that's what I think all French people are). Now you’re also snuggling with me on my couch in Tauranga.

Clafoutis is traditionally made with cherries but you can substitute all sorts of other fruits. Originally I was just going to roll with pears until I remembered the glut of feijoas I had out on the lawn. So in they went. And thank goodness for that. Pear and feijoa are a great match together, let alone with a delicious custard blanket encasing them. And did I mention cream? Heavy pouring cream. Oh my.

I read somewhere (i.e. wikipedia) that a clafoutis made without cherries is a 'flaugnarde'. Both are excellent words to say. Either way, clafoutis or flaugnarde, you are delicious and you are most definitely here to stay. Make this immediately, so you too can bundle up on the couch under a blanket and enjoy this deeply comforting dessert. Tonight this is going to accompany a screening of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. I'm a lucky girl.

Pear & Feijoa Clafoutis

Butter, for greasing

Sugar, for sprinkling

1 large pear

10 feijoas (or use a different fruit if you prefer)

4 eggs

135g brown sugar

100ml cream

190ml milk

1 tsp Heilala Vanilla Extract

½ tsp almond extract (optional)

¼ tsp salt

70g flour

Grease a baking dish with butter and sprinkle sugar over so it sticks to the butter. Preheat oven to 170°C. Whisk the eggs and brown sugar together until pale and fluffy. Combine cream, milk, extracts and salt and stir into egg mix. Sift the flour over top and whisk to combine. Let sit while you prepare the fruit. Core and slice pear into thin wedges and scoop out feijoa flesh, place fruit in a single layer on the bottom of the dish and gently pour the batter over top. Bake for 35mins or until golden and the custard is firm. Sprinkle with icing sugar and enjoy.

                 

*Weekly Tip: If you chill clafoutis it takes on a nice firm texture making it easy to slice into wedges. So, if (for some strange reason) you find yourself with any leftover, it makes a great lunch snack.

Flavours Column: Homemade Crumpets

Who needs supermarket crumpets when you can make these?! 

Okay, yes, sometimes having a packet of ready-made crumpets on hand does satisfy a quick breakfast/snack need, but there’s no reason why you can’t whip up a batch of your own and keep them in the fridge or freezer. 

They are easy to make, don’t require special ingredients or take a lot of time unlike other breads. The only slightly unusual item you need to make these delicious breakfast treats is round metal rings to cook them in. These are easily found in kitchen shops sold as ‘egg rings’ or simply use round cookie cutters like I did. You might find you already have some rattling around in your kitchen drawer (also like I did). 

This recipe makes at least twelve golden brown crumpets and they are just as delicious freshly toasted from the pan as they are hot from the toaster the next day. I ate them with homemade rhubarb jam. And then with honey. And then with marmite. And then with peanut butter. That is literally what I did. But not one after the other. I swear. 

Homemade Crumpets

Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, Weds 16th Oct 2013

Adapted from Paul Hollywood's recipe found here. 

200g high-grade flour

150g plain flour

2 x 8g sachets of instant yeast

1 teaspoon of honey

350ml warm milk

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

175ml warm water

Mix flours and yeast together (the high grade flour helps give structure to the crumpets’ bubbles). Dissolve honey in the warm milk and beat into the flour with a wooden spoon. Continue beating for a few minutes to create a thick, smooth batter. Cover and rest for 30mins. Mix baking soda and salt into the warm water. Beat into the batter until smooth and rest again for 30mins. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and grease with butter or cooking spray. Grease the inside of the metal rings. Sit the rings in the pan and drop a large spoonful of batter into each. After a few minutes bubbles will appear on the surface, wait another minute then gently flip the crumpets over and cook for another 3 minutes. Crumpets are ready when both sides are golden and they feel springy when pressed.

Weekly Tip: Keep homemade crumpets in the fridge or freezer and drop them into the toaster as needed.

Flavours Column: Molly's Apricot Scones

This week’s recipe comes from Molly Wizenberg of the blog Orangette.

You know how most of us have a person we look up to and admire? Someone who we don't actually know but whose personality, attitude and approach to life (and in my case, food) just seem to resonate with you? Well, my person is Molly. 

Author of Orangette as well as A Homemade Life (which I highly recommend) and the upcoming Delancey due out in 2014, Molly is also one half of the podcast Spilled Milk and a contributor to numerous food publications such as Bon Appetit. 

Molly has been blogging about food since 2004. Way back when writing about your life and publishing it online was still a relatively new concept and documenting your every move and sharing it with the world was a rarity. 

What stands out about Molly's writing is her incredible ability to infuse her words with personality and humour, relating recipes back to real life experiences. You don’t just get a recipe - you get a recipe AND a story. Her writing is endearing, funny and very relatable, which is why she has had such success. 

I consider Molly to be one of the OGs of the food blogging world and when she replied to my email requesting permission to share this recipe the inner fan-geek in me squealed just a little in delight. (I'll be keeping the email forever).

Thank you for all the inspiration Molly. For being a real and genuine person who isn't afraid to be herself. And for being so kind as to let me share both this recipe and my admiration of you to the world. 

Considerable gushing will now subside. x

Wholemeal Apricot Scones

Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, Weds 4th Sept 2013

Original recipe can be found here. 

1 cup plain flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

60g cold unsalted butter, cubed

¼ cup sugar

½ cup diced dried apricots

½ cup milk, plus more for glazing

1 large egg

Heat oven to 210°C and line a tray with baking paper. Whisk flours, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub the cold butter into the flour mixture, until there are no butter lumps bigger than a pea. Whisk in the sugar and dried apricots. Mix the milk and egg together and pour over the flour mixture - stir with a fork to just combine (don’t worry if it doesn’t all come together). Turn the dough and any excess flour out onto the bench and press until it just comes together. As soon as the dough holds, pat into a rough circle about 3.5cm thick and cut into 8 wedges. Brush with milk and bake for 15mins or until golden. Molly suggests serving them warm with butter. I'd have to agree.

*Weekly Tip: When making scones, the colder the butter the better. Try freezing it and grating it directly into the flour.

Pancake Schmancake

On Tuesday night, in honour of Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day, I made pancakes. Or more correctly 'griddle cakes' as these were officially called. Said cakes did not make me happy.

I should've known this would happen.

Pancakes and I are friends, but only from a distance. We're more acquaintances. Definitely not besties. You could, at a push, say we run in the same circles. Maybe.

It's not that I don't like pancakes. Au contraire! I love them! But eating them and loving them is different to making them and loving them. I'd like to be better friends but every time we try to work together it turns to custard. No, not custard, custard is good. These pancakes were sad.

I followed an old recipe (2008 is old from an online perspective) from The Wednesday Chef. Now don't get me wrong, I love The Wednesday Chef and my dreary pancakes are no reflection of her talents, tastes or her recipe. They are a reflection of my lack of ability to handle pancakes. I just struggle with them.

Tonight this one even taunted me. Do you see the face? Do you? It is mocking me. It's beady little eyes saying 'why bother? You know you'll never win'. Evil pancake.

Anyway. The only redeeming quality of these pancakes were the chunks of chocolate and sour cherries I added to jazz them up a bit. I don't think these additions were why they didn't work - they were why they were eaten. Without the chocolate and cherries I may not have bothered (to eat the three that I did). They were soggy, sappy, sad messes of pancakes. A wimpy, weak, flaccid example of cake made in a pan. That may sound a little harsh, but it's how I felt at the time.

I really wanted to get on board with Pancake Day but for me it was just a sad reminder that I can't cook them. I think I've had success once. Once. With a buttermilk based recipe. But I am determined not to let this get me down! I will find the perfect pancake/griddle cake recipe. Because pancakes are one of my favourite breakfast (or dessert, or even dinner) items and I don't want there to be beef between us. Here's how I'm going to find this 'perfect' recipe.

Tactics to be implemented by me:

• Use a better frying pan - it may not have helped that I was using an electric pan that turned itself off once it reached temperature. Why would it do that? Who wants a pan that turns itself off once it's hot enough? That's just silly.
• Letting my batter sit for at least 30mins before cooking. I'm not sure why I think this is a good move but it feels right.
• Different buttering/greasing options - butter, no butter, oil etc and also wiping away the butter from the pan and adding fresh butter between each round of pancake frying.

I'm going to attempt these recipes:

• Oatmeal Pancakes from Molly
• Blueberry Pancakes (including a handy Pancake 101 that I will be referencing along the way) and Lemon Ricotta Pancakes from Smitten Kitchen
• Perfect Pancakes from The Pioneer Woman
• Fluffy Pancakes with a very promising 5-star rating from over 3,000 reviews from All Recipes.

And any other interesting recipes I may find along the way. During my research I also found I'm not the only one who makes terrible pancakes - thank you Ms Humble for making me feel a little bit better.

So it's game on pancakes! Batter up. (I couldn't help a pancake pun! There were SO many to choose from. The pun possibilities almost made my poor pancake experience worthwhile). I'll leave you with a half decent picture of Tuesday's sad pancake attempt...this very average photo makes them look better than they were. Raspberries make anything look tasty.