Ages ago, before I was married, I worked with a woman at my office that was always baking the most amazing creations. One day she shared that she had made a dessert called “clafouti,” and I wasn’t sure what she meant. I had never heard the word before in my life, yet alone baked or eaten one.
Fast forward 15 or so years to a dinner SPH and I hosted recently for two other couples. We were making French food, and I had an automatic flashback to that fancy French sounding dessert, “clafouti.” I researched how to make one, added my own Sweet Pea spin, and guess what--clafouti is a fancy French word that could be translated to mean “simple, easy dessert.” (My apologies to my French teachers from my school years, I don’t actually know what clafouti means!)
You can use a variety of different fruits for this recipe, but I settled on strawberry and pear, since both looked fresh. The traditional recipe calls for cherries, but I found recipes for plum, blueberry and even apple clafouti. Since I now know this recipe is a simple, healthful dessert, I will be trying new renditions soon.
Strawberry Pear Clafouti
1 quart strawberries, rinsed, stems removed and sliced
1 large Bartlett pear, ripe, but still firm, deseeded and diced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups skim milk
⅔ cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ cup white sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a deep dish pie pan or a 9x9 glass pan.
Mix the strawberries, pear, lemon juice and brown sugar together in a bowl. 
Pour into the bottom of the pie or glass pan.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the milk, flour, vanilla, white sugar and salt. Mix until smooth and pour oven the fruit.
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Serves 8.
SPC