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Julia Child’s Pear Clafoutis

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

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.

Pear-Clafoutis-3

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.

Pear Clafoutis

Here’s to allthefood that’s simple yet elegant.

Bring on the clafoutis. Enjoy!

Did you make this?

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Pear Clafoutis

Julia Child's Pear Clafoutis (So Easy!)

4.86 from 21 ratings
Pear Clafoutis may have a fancy schmancy name, but it's quite straightforward. It's a simple yet elegant dessert that's loaded with fresh fruit and bakes up with a delicious custard center and golden souffle top. Perfect for date night or sharing with friends. Just be sure to give the pears time to marinate.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Author: Amy Dong

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
  • cup granulated sugar

For the Batter:

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)

Calories: 238kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 87mg | Potassium: 156mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 211IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: French

Source: Chew Out Loud, adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I

Hungry for Fruity Desserts:

  1. Best Crispy Peach Crisp. This one’s got a big crunch on top and luscious peaches within.
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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.

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3. Best Apple Pie with Flakey Butter Crust. Butter crusts are our thing. The apple filling is some serious stuff. Unbelievably good.

Perfect Apple Pie with Flaky Butter Crust 6
4.86 from 21 votes (17 ratings without comment)

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Recipe Rating




17 comments

    • diane williams
    • 5 stars

    Hi, I love the recipe. Any substitute for the alcohol?

    • Sandra McKenzie
    • 5 stars

    Julia Child Pear Clafouti is indeed simple and delicious. Unfortunately her measurements are all by volume, which I find very irritating. For instance she calls for three cups of pear slices. I don’t know about anyone else, but three cups is meaningless to me. 400 grams (or whatever) is simple enough to weigh on a cheap digital scale, and is usefully precise.
    Dorie Greenspan, who worked closely with Julia, has a very similar recipe foe clafouti, which does include weights, and is thus easier to follow.

    • Ellen

    How well do you think this would freeze? Thank you!

      • Amy Dong

      Ellen, I haven’t tried freezing this, but I’m thinking it would freeze similarly to an apple pie. Reheat in the oven vs. microwave, for best results.

    • Gary

    If my tart plate isn’t stove top safe but is oven safe would I be able to do the first step in the oven instead of on top of the stove?

      • Amy Dong

      You can do that and watch very closely, or you can even gently microwave it. Enjoy!

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