Fall

Fig and Anise Clafoutis

by:
October  6, 2009
4
1 Ratings
  • Serves 8
Author Notes

This dish was inspired by a nibble I was served one day that consisted of a dried turkish fig stuffed with anise seeds and a roasted walnut....it was delicious. I've always loved Clafoutis, and thought the figs might offer a nice alternative to the traditional cherry version. In addition to the anise, I added some of my other favorite flavors with figs, such as almonds, and apple (the calvados). - Oui-Chef —Oui, Chef

Test Kitchen Notes

This is our new go-to clafoutis. Oui-Chef is not messing around with this recipe: it has the thoughtful markings of a restaurant recipe, with the ease of home cooking. Oui-Chef has you toast the almonds and anise seed, butter and sugar the baking dish and saute the figs in a honey butter before assembling the clafoutis, all steps which serve to amplify the flavors. Then you pour over the loose clafoutis batter, slide the pan in the oven and wait for your reward. We've made this with both fresh figs and dried Mission figs and both came out splendidly. - A&M —The Editors

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 20 Black Mission Figs
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus some for the dish
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
  • 1 teaspoon Anise seeds
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest, about 1 lemon worth
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup sugar, plus some for the dish
  • 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon calvados brandy
  • kosher salt
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
  2. Butter and sugar a 10 1/2 inch round baking dish.
  3. Cut the stems off the figs, and quarter them lengthwise.
  4. 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.
  5. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and using a sharp knife, scrape the seeds out of the pod and onto a small plate.
  6. Place the anise seeds in a small, dry saute pan over low heat and toast gently till fragrant. Remove from heat and let cool.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Zest the lemon with a fine toothed micro-plane, reserve.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
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  • beetific
    beetific
  • Midge
    Midge
  • FrozenFoodie
    FrozenFoodie
  • Oui, Chef
    Oui, Chef
  • Janneke Verheij
    Janneke Verheij
I am a father of five, who recently completed a two year professional hiatus during which I indulged my long held passion for cooking by moving to France to study the culinary arts and immerse myself in all things French. I earned “Le Grande Diplome” from Le Cordon Bleu, studied also at The Ritz Escoffier and Lenotre cooking schools, and completed the course offerings of the Bordeaux L’Ecole du Vin. About six months ago started "Oui, Chef", which is a food blog that exists as an extension of my efforts to teach my children a few things about cooking, and how our food choices over time effect not only our own health, but that of our local food communities and our planet at large. By sharing some of our cooking experiences through the blog, I hope to inspire other families to start spending more time together in the kitchen, cooking healthy meals as a family, passing on established familial food traditions, and perhaps starting some new ones.

30 Reviews

Josie M. September 22, 2019
I was thinking of trying this but my figs are brown figs, not black mission. Anyone have experience with brown figs?
 
neighome September 22, 2013
Great recipe! I made it with fresh figs but a substitution of regular brandy for Calvados. The figs were phenomenal, but a bite of custard without a fig was ever so slightly bland, maybe because I didn't use Calvados. It just need a touch more acid. So I plan a couple of tweaks for next time. My pinch of salt in the custard will be a bigger pinch, and I'll either increase the amount of lemon zest or steep the cream in lemon zest strips prior to combining with the other ingredients. Or maybe I'll just buy some Calvados and see if that does the trick. Hmmm....an excuse to buy more brandy.....I like this train of thought.
 
roszam June 6, 2013
Great recipe. What can I substitute the Calvados with? Apple Cider, Apple Juice or normal brandy? Thanks
 
Oui, C. June 6, 2013
Any of these choices would work, but if you have some, I'd use the brandy.
 
beetific January 20, 2011
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!
 
Midge November 22, 2010
Wow, I missed this one first time around. Looks so delicious.
 
FrozenFoodie January 1, 2010
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!!!
 
Oui, C. January 2, 2010
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
 
Oui, C. November 4, 2009
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.
 
Janneke V. October 25, 2009
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.
 
Janneke V. October 25, 2009
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.
 
mcvl October 20, 2009
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?]
 
cynthiagarrett25 October 19, 2009
I am making the recipe over the weekend...I have been so impressed with ALL the Oui Chef recipes! What a find!!!
 
SallyM October 17, 2009
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!
 
MMM April 27, 2021
You have a mission fig tree? Can we be friends. Nothing to do with the fig tree...really. I won't even ask for figs. Nope. Won't pocket figs, either. Don't worry about me. Just looking for new figs....errr I mean friends.
 
SallyM October 17, 2009
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!
 
SallyM October 17, 2009
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!
 
SallyM October 17, 2009
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!
 
LEPBTV October 16, 2009
YUM! The ingredients are on the shopping list!!!
 
MrsWheelbarrow October 15, 2009
This looks so good. Can't wait to smell it!
 
MrsWheelbarrow October 15, 2009
This looks so good. Can't wait to smell it!
 
WinnieAb October 9, 2009
Looks wonderful!
 
EmilyNunn October 7, 2009
I can't wait to try this. How lovely it looks.
 
Oui, C. October 7, 2009
You're very sweet, thanks.