Plum Clafoutis Recipe

This exquisite Plum Clafoutis recipe features in-season juicy Italian plums covered in a custard-like creamy filling. Lightly sweetened, it’s a French classic dessert that’s perfect as a snack, breakfast, or after a meal. And the best part of this impressive-looking dessert? It couldn’t be easier, or faster, to make!

You really need to make this easy and delicious Plum Clafoutis! At the halfway point between a Dutch baby and a dense flan, this classic French dessert made from simple ingredients requires very little forethought and takes no time to make.

This time of year I like to use sweet as nectar, smaller Italian plums that arrive late summer. Covered in the rich and silky batter, then baked until puffed and golden brown, the custardy dessert lets the sweet-juicy plums shine through. Just heavenly.

What Is Clafoutis?

Clafoutis (pronounced cla-foo-tee) is a classic French dessert made with stone fruit, typically sweet black cherries, that are baked in a sweet custard filling.

The fruit is arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a simple batter that is made with eggs, flour, sugar and milk. When placed in the oven to bake, it puffs up beautifully with streaks of fruit juices spilling throughout.

A clafoutis is most often served slightly warm or at room temperature, dusted with powdered sugar and sometimes a little whipped cream or ice cream on the side.

Quicker to prepare than pancakes, this dessert is a perfect choice for summer impromptu gatherings.

Best Fruit To Make A Clafoutis

For this plum clafoutis, I like to use the juicy, smaller-sized Italian plums that are crowding the tables at the Farmer’s markets in late summer. Deep purple in colour, they are soft and sweet and just perfect for this simple dessert. Any plums will work, as long as they are fully ripe and in-season so they are really flavourful.

As mentioned, cherries are a classic for Clafoutis but you can use any fresh seasonal fruit for this dessert. Blueberries, raspberries, apples, pears, and apricots all work. Other stone fruit such as peaches and nectarines will also work but tend to be quite juicy so use really firm ones, if you can.

Ingredient Notes

The beauty of this plum clafoutis is that it uses mostly pantry ingredients that you will likely have on hand. This, and the fact that it so easy to throw together, makes it an ideal dessert to whip up at the last minute.

• Eggs – Because a clafoutis has very little flour, you want to be mindful of the egg to flour ratio so your batter is not too eggy. Similarly, use too few eggs and the batter will not be dense enough. For a half cup of flour, 3 large eggs work perfectly.
• Sugar – I have great results with cane sugar. Use regular if you prefer.
• Whole milk – Whole milk is really best for a clafoutis.
• Flour – When making a pancake or crepe batter, I rarely use white all-purpose flour choosing instead to experiment with more whole wheat flours such as buckwheat, rye, or spelt. A clafoutis batter, however, has very little flour so I like to stick to all-white flour which yields a velvety-light, and silky custard. You can experiment with almond flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour, though I haven’t given those a try. Update: A reader has tried making the clafoutis with almond flour and it did not work. Perhaps an all-purpose GF flour would work, but again, I haven’t tried it.
• Salt – Always add a pinch into custardy desserts.
• Butter – Many recipes call for whole milk with a small amount of cream. For this recipe, I use 2 tablespoons of melted butter in place of the cream which adds a silky richness to the batter.
• Vanilla extract – I love the floral perfume of vanilla extract in my clafoutis. But feel free to use other extracts such as almond extract or even rum. Keep in mind other flavors may be much stronger.
• Fruit – Ripe plums are exquisite in this clafoutis. As summer rounds the bend into fall, swap out the plums for pears, apples, or figs.

How To Make Plum Clafoutis

A clafoutis requires only one bowl making it so easy to throw together and a cinch to clean up. If you don’t have a tart pan, you can make a clafoutis in a cast iron skillet, or any other shallow baking dish of similar size.

Grease the pan: Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan, or similar-size ovenproof dish, with 1 tablespoon butter. Dust the bottom of the pan with sugar (I use cane or Demerara) which gives a little structure to the bottom of the clafoutis.

Prepare the plums: Wash and dry the plums, cut them in half and remove the pits. I like to quarter the plums but you can leave them in half if you wish, or if they are very small. Arrange the plum slices on the bottom of the pan, and set aside.

Make the batter: In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and flour. Slowly pour the milk into the egg mixture followed by the vanilla and whisk until smooth. Alternatively, you can use a food processor, or blender, to mix the batter.

Assemble and bake the clafoutis: Pour the batter over the plums in the baking dish.

Bake: Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the custard is just set in the centre.

Serve: Give it a quick dusting of confectioners sugar and serve warm. Do note the clafoutis comes out of the oven gorgeously puffy, but will deflate pretty quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Serving Suggestions

It’s wonderful to serve the plum clafoutis straight out of the oven, but letting it cool to room temperature firms up the custard and allows the flavors to meld. It’s even delicious cold straight from the fridge.

While we almost always enjoy the clafoutis on its own with just a dusting of powdered sugar, a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream is always welcome.

More Summer Desserts To Try