Julia Child’s Pear Clafoutis
- By Amy Dong
- Updated Oct. 11, 2022
Pear Clafoutis may have a fancy schmancy name, but it’s quite straightforward. It’s a simple yet elegant dessert that’s layered with fresh pears and bakes up with a delicious custard center and golden souffle top. Perfect for date night or sharing with friends.
Pear Clafoutis
We treasure our favorite apple pies and appley treats.
But it’s fruit confession time: I actually prefer pears. The humble and year-round pear lends fabulous flavor and structure to breads and tarts (and salads, but this post isn’t about salads.)
Since I’m confessing, I’ll go ahead and say I expected this Pear Clafoutis to be way harder than it actually is. I mean, it’s got a fussy-ish name. And we all know many of Julia Child’s recipes aren’t the easy-breezy kind.
Regardless, I caught the Mastering the Art of French Cooking bug a couple years ago, and found this easy Pear Clafoutis that I had to make.
By the way, you probably know clafoutis is pronounced klafuti, and means…well, it means a lot of things. Like, delicious and impressive. And also surprisingly simple to make.
Why Pears?
Clafoutis is basically a French dessert that consists of fresh fruit and bakes up with a firm custardy center and a puffy souffle-like top. Often, cherries are the fruit of choice…but we already talked about my relationship with pears.
Pears are like soft, golden slices of goodness, nestled in the thick custardy tart. They have a wonderfully tender texture when baked, are juicy, and smell amazing. Plus, fresh pears are usually available year round, and you can let them ripen at home if they’re a bit too firm at the grocery store.
This is one of those desserts your friends will think you slaved hours over. Only you will know you could have swung this on any ol’ night you wanted. It’s actually easier than pie.
By the way, Pear Clafoutis goes hand in hand with some homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Here’s to allthefood that’s simple yet elegant.
Bring on the clafoutis. Enjoy!
Did you make this?
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Julia Child's Pear Clafoutis (So Easy!)
Ingredients
For the Pears:
- 1 TB salted butter, room temp
- 3 cups cored/peeled/thinly sliced large ripe pears
- ¼ cup sweet white wine, or kirsch or cognac
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
For the Batter:
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk
- ⅔ cups granulated sugar, divided
- 3 large eggs
- 1 TB pure vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp table salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ cup all purpose flour, scooped and leveled for correct measuring
- 1 TB fresh lemon zest, from 2 lemons
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F, with rack on lower middle position. Grease a ceramic tart pan or cast iron pan (needs to be stovetop-safe) with the butter. Set aside.
- In a bowl, combine pears with sweet wine and 1/3 cup sugar. Let stand 1 hour. Drain and set aside.
- Place ingredients for the Batter, using only 1/3 cup of sugar, in a blender in the order of ingredients listed. Cover and blend at top speed 1 min.
- Pour 1/4 inch layer of the batter at bottom of prepared baking pan. Place over moderate heat on stovetop and heat just until a film of batter has visibly set on the bottom of the dish; this keeps fruit from sinking to the bottom. Remove from heat and pour in the remaining batter. Spread pears in a fan-like pattern or however you wish. Sprinkle on the remainin 1/3 cup sugar. Smooth surface with back of a spoon.
- Bake 50-60 min. or until puffed up and golden brown; a knife inserted into center should come out clean. Let cool a bit. Serve warm with powdered sugar, whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.
Nutrition (per serving)
Source: Chew Out Loud, adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I
Hungry for Fruity Desserts:
- Best Crispy Peach Crisp. This one’s got a big crunch on top and luscious peaches within.
2. Blueberry Pie with Flaky Butter Crust. It took us a couple tries to get this one just the way we wanted. It’s seriously amazing pie.
3. Best Apple Pie with Flakey Butter Crust. Butter crusts are our thing. The apple filling is some serious stuff. Unbelievably good.
