L'Affaire du Clafoutis

I have to admit I have a small, school girl like crush. I'm smitten. All I can do is daydream when I should be working. In my imagination I melt with each new embrace. My lip quivering and bosom heaving like a lead lady in some Harlequin romance novel.

I am, of course, speaking of clafoutis.

A few days ago I pleaded for help on identifying some Italian plums and what to do with them. Many of you suggested this strange, foreign new comer with rosy cheeks that just sort of make me melt at the mere thought of them.

Clafoutis is an eggy, almost custard, not quite flan, adult form of crepe sort of gustatory fiancee of mine. Normally it's made with unpitted cherries; the cherries adding a supposedly deep, nutty flavor. However, my Italian plums wooed me and swept me off my feet in this so simple, easy to make recipe. The sassy little tarts.

I'm cheating on the cupcakes with clafoutis at the moment. It's tawdry the way we sneak around in the kitchen, sharing moments with each other while the cupcake tin wonders where I am, and Rob wonders where his piece of clafoutis is. She is all mine though, I'm too selfish for a menage et trois.

Italian Plum Clafoutis
Serves 9 / 350 F oven

What You'll Need...
6 Italian plums, each cut into 8 wedges, stones discarded
3 eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar or vanilla sugar
1 cup of milk or cream ( I used a bit of both)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of flour
powdered sugar to garnish
What You'll Do...
1) Lightly butter a 9 inch or 8 inch, round or square, Pyrex dish or tart pan. Arrange the plums on the bottom. Give them a light, fine dusting of granulated sugar. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2) Whisk together the sugar and eggs for a minute or two. Add the milk, extract, and salt and whisk a minute more.

3) Sift in the flour and whisk. Lightly pour into the baking dish or tart pan, try to keep the plums from floating away, but some of them will regardless what you do. Just accept it.

4) Bake for 40 minutes, rotating the the pan after the first 32 to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and let cool for 40 minutes. the clafoutis will deflate a bit, but that's fine and supposed to happen. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Normally you use a round 9 or 10 inch tart pan for this. I used a Pyrex 8 inch square pan for it, which was just fine too.