by Oui, Chef
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20
Black Mission Figs
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3 tablespoons
unsalted butter, plus some for the dish
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2 tablespoons
honey
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1/2 cup
slivered almonds, toasted
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1 teaspoon
Anise seeds
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1 teaspoon
lemon zest, about 1 lemon worth
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1
vanilla bean
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3
large eggs
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3/4 cups
heavy cream
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3/4 cups
whole milk
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1/2 cup
sugar, plus some for the dish
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6 tablespoons
all-purpose flour
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1 tablespoon
calvados brandy
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Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Ask the hotline about this step!Butter and sugar a 10 1/2 inch round baking dish.
Ask the hotline about this step!Cut the stems off the figs, and quarter them lengthwise.
Ask the hotline about this step!Spread the almond pieces on a sheet tray and toast in the oven for 6-8 minutes, until nicely golden, remove from the oven and set aside.
Ask the hotline about this step!Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and using a sharp knife, scrape the seeds out of the pod and onto a small plate.
Ask the hotline about this step!Place the anise seeds in a small, dry saute pan over low heat and toast gently till fragrant. Remove from heat and let cool.
Ask the hotline about this step!Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat, and when ready, add the butter, honey, 1/2 of the vanilla seeds, and the vanilla pod, stir well. Add the figs, a pinch of salt, the anise seeds, and cook, tossing occasionally, 2-3 minutes, until the figs are starting to soften, and are well coated with the honey butter.
Ask the hotline about this step!Pour the figs into the prepared baking dish, and spread evenly across the bottom. Remove the vanilla pod, and sprinkle with the toasted almond pieces.
Ask the hotline about this step!Zest the lemon with a fine toothed micro-plane, reserve.
Ask the hotline about this step!In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, blend the eggs until frothy, add the balance of the vanilla seeds, the lemon zest, the sugar, cream, and milk, and Calvados, and mix well. Add the flour and a pinch of salt, and mix until well incorporated, 1-2 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes.
Ask the hotline about this step!Pour the batter over the figs, and place the dish in the center of the preheated oven. Bake until the center puffs and turns a deep golden color, and the clafoutis feels firm and set, about 30-40 minutes.
Ask the hotline about this step!Transfer to a cooling rack. Serve slightly warm, or at room temperature, dusted with confectioner’s sugar, and topped with a dollop of freshly whipped cream if desired.
Ask the hotline about this step!I will preface this by saying that I haven't made the recipe as posted, so I don't have anything for comparison. After reading the comments about using dried figs, I thought I would soak the figs in the Calvados for 10 minutes, and then eliminate what is added to the batter. All I can say is yum! This was the best clafoutis we've ever had. Thanks for sharing!!!
What a great idea! I will definitely try this next time I make the clafoutis off-season with dried figs. Thanks for the tip, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Cheers - Steve
Thank you all for your comments. FYI - I tried this dish again this past weekend with dried rather than fresh figs, and while it was still good, it didn't measure up to the fresh fig variant. One thing I will do next time is shorten the cooking time to compensate for the lower moisture content of the dried figs, I'm thinking 25-30 minutes would do.
I finally came around to try it. I bought the figs last Tuesday but discovered I was out of anise seeds. No shop around sold them so I had to wait for the next market day again, buy new figs and anise seeds. It was worth all the waiting and biking around town for the ingredients. Unfortunately It did not make it to the book it's a very very nice clafoutis.
I finally came around to try it. I bought the figs last Tuesday but discovered I was out of anise seeds. No shop around sold them so I had to wait for the next market day again, buy new figs and anise seeds. It was worth all the waiting and biking around town for the ingredients. Unfortunately It did not make it to the book it's a very very nice clafoutis.
Oh my lands and little fishes, what a scrumptious idea!
Clafoutis is a frequent dessert at my house, but in its most austere form. When I looked at Oui-Chef's clafoutis, I knew there was a good chance I was going to say farewell to my old clafoutis.
Just to be sure, Sunday night I made my old-style clafoutis with Oui-Chef's flavorings. Scaled back to serve two: 5 raw figs, 2T almonds, 1t anise seed, 1/4 cup milk, 2T vanilla sugar, 1 egg, 1t Calvados, 1/4 cup Wondra, salt, 16 minutes at 400 degrees. (The batter is from Beck, Bertholle, & Child: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Knopf, 1961, page 655 without the second application of sugar on page 656.)
Lovely, modest, workaday. The batter cooks to leatheriness, and we roll our halves up and munch them like French schoolchildren.
So then Monday Oui-Chef, again scaled back.
batter in the blender:
1 egg
2T vanilla sugar
3T cream
3T milk
1T Calvados
2T Wondra
salt
toast:
2T slivered almonds
1t anise seed
stew briefly in frying pan:
5 figs stemmed and quartered lengthwise
1T butter
1t honey
assemble in buttered and sugared oven pan:
figs and butter-honey yummy goop
almonds
anise seed
zest from 1/2 lemon
batter
Into the 400-degree oven for 18 minutes. Make strong, bitter coffee while waiting for it to cool off to slightly warm.
As they say in movie previews, "Our world changed ... */forever/*." I'll never make an old-style clafoutis again; why would I? My scaled-back version serves four (two for dessert, two for breakfast). The flavors are gutsy enough that in future I'll use Oui-Chef's more powerful application of vanilla beans instead of my mild vanilla sugar.
Now to revisit every clafoutis I've ever made: cherry, peach, pear ...
[I have photographs of both the old-style and the new (the new is prettier too). Should I post them above at the head of the recipe?]
I am making the recipe over the weekend...I have been so impressed with ALL the Oui Chef recipes! What a find!!!
We have a mission fig tree so I always looking for recipes. I made this recipe this morning. It was easy and delicious - my whole family thought it was amazing. It's a great way to use lots of figs. I think i'll make some and freeze for the winter. Great recipe! Thanks Qui Chef!
We have a mission fig tree so I always looking for recipes. I made this recipe this morning. It was easy and delicious - my whole family thought it was amazing. It's a great way to use lots of figs. I think i'll make some and freeze for the winter. Great recipe! Thanks Qui Chef!
We have a mission fig tree so I always looking for recipes. I made this recipe this morning. It was easy and delicious - my whole family thought it was amazing. It's a great way to use lots of figs. I think i'll make some and freeze for the winter. Great recipe! Thanks Qui Chef!
We have a mission fig tree so I always looking for recipes. I made this recipe this morning. It was easy and delicious - my whole family thought it was amazing. It's a great way to use lots of figs. I think i'll make some and freeze for the winter. Great recipe! Thanks Qui Chef!
This looks so good. Can't wait to smell it!
This looks so good. Can't wait to smell it!
Thank you, Merrill. I was really pleased with the way it came out and was happy to get a decent photo of it.
Fig and anise are beautiful together. I know I'd love this.
Fresh out of the oven, the aroma of the anise was intoxicating. Thanks for your lovely comment.
this looks amazing and well thought out, can't wait to try it
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Scraping a vanilla bean works best with the tip of a very sharp knife.
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Butter and sugaring results in a snowy looking pan.
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Toasting the anise seeds made the apartment smell divine.
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Making the custardy base.
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Where would we be without the Mr. Bear honey bottles? Nowhere good, that's for sure.
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Merrill, multitasking as usual, has already toasted the slivered almonds.
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This is amazing. I had never heard of a Clafoutis before, but since my boyfriend told me it was his favorite cake I've been experimenting with various recipes to figure out exactly what they entail. This is by far the best. (I think the key is the anise seeds--the taste and aroma was really delicate.) I used vanilla extract instead of the bean and reduced the amount of fruit as I had a smaller pan. Also dried figs instead of fresh, which I soaked in warm water and probably should have cut into slightly smaller pieces than quarters. The batter was very thin when I poured it in, and after about 25 minutes was still completely liquid while the top of the cake had risen and turned golden brown, so I turned down the heat to 300 for the last 15 mins or so and it came out perfectly. Beautiful recipe. I can't wait to keep experimenting with clafoutis!