My Breakfast Clafoutis

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My Breakfast Clafoutis

Lately, I’ve been craving desserts on a daily basis, and so in an effort not to get too crazy, I’ve been searching out healthier alternatives to satisfy my sweet tooth.  I made these as a fast and healthy weeknight dessert, but the leftovers quickly became my morning snack over the following days.  And why not?   Eggs, milk, fruit and almonds?  Perfect breakfast food!

These are decently healthier than the last version of clafoutis I posted with Amarena cherries and dark chocolate…which are delicious!  But, here, I used lowfat milk instead of heavy cream and made them gluten free with the addition of almond flour in lieu of all-purpose.  Everything (except the berries) gets whirred in a blender before a short rest period, so these are super quick to make and can’t be easier for clean up.

I don’t put a ton of sugar in these since I have them for breakfast, so you may need to sweeten them up a bit more if you like it on the sweet side or finish with a bit of powdered sugar or an extra drizzle of honey.  If you are using peak season berries, they should be plenty sweet – I use frozen berries in the off-season months myself.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 6 6-ounce ramekins

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk, lowfat or otherwise

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 tsps almond extract

¼ cup honey or light brown sugar

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup almond flour

1 ½ cups berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or some combination)

cooking spray, for greasing

powdered sugar, for garnish (optional)

Procedure

Preheat oven to 375° F.

In a blender, blend together eggs, milk, extracts, honey and salt.  Add flour and blend for 10 seconds.  Scrape down the sides and blend for another 10 to 15 seconds until flour is incorporated and there are no lumps.  Rest batter in the refrigerator for a minimum of 15 minutes and up to overnight.

Grease the ramekins, and place on a large baking sheet.  Place ¼ cup of mixed berries in each ramekin and top with an even amount of batter in each.

Transfer baking sheet into the oven and bake for 23-25 minutes until lightly browned, raised and the custard is set.  Remove and let cool slightly before serving.   Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

Amarena Cherry & Dark Chocolate Clafoutis

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Amarena Cherry & Dark Chocolate Clafoutis

I am showing you all of my cards today.  A secret of mine is whenever I am having guests over and haven’t given dessert much thought, I fall back on my old standby of dark chocolate and cherries.  I create a dessert – a tart, a pudding, a trifle, whatever – where I can work in those flavors, often with heavy doses of cream.  I think it started from childhood, where black forest was my birthday cake of choice (yes…every year).  It’s such a beautiful combination and, I think, a real crowd pleaser.

I have already professed my love for all things amarena cherry, so when trying to think of delicious ways to cook with them, I decided to (1) keep it simple and (2) not resist the urge to combine them with dark chocolate.  On the first point, I went with a clafouti because cherries in clafoutis are a time-honored, classic tradition.  Of course, I then had to go and grate dark chocolate all over them.

Clafoutis should be part of your culinary arsenal.  The sweetened, crepe-like batter takes literally minutes to make in your blender, and you can use most fruits you like – cherries, blueberries, strawberries, plums.  The fruit is spread in a baking dish or, like here, in individual ramekins, batter is poured in, into the oven and, within the hour, you have a beautiful, custardy, fruity dessert.  Here, I drain Amarena cherries (in syrup) in lieu of fresh fruit, since it’s not quite the season yet.  I also reduced the sugar amount because of that, so bump it up if you are using fresh fruit.  I love the shaved dark chocolate as well – just gives it a nice finish.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 6 6-ounce ramekins

2 eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 tsps almond extract

3 tbsps light brown sugar

1/8 tsp salt

¼ cup all purpose flour, sifted

butter and white sugar for greasing/dusting ramekins

1 cup Amarena cherries, drained of syrup

dark chocolate for grating

confectioner’s sugar, for garnish (optional)

Procedure

Preheat oven to 375° F.

In a blender, blend together eggs, heavy cream, extracts, sugar and salt.  Add flour and blend for 10 seconds.  Scrape down the sides and blend for another 10 to 15 seconds until flour is incorporated and there are no lumps.  Rest batter in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Grease the ramekins and lightly dust with sugar, shaking out any excess, and place on a large baking sheet.  Spread the cherries evenly between the ramekins.  Pour batter evenly into the six ramekins.  Using a microplane or other grater, grate dark chocolate (to your desired level) over each.

Transfer baking sheet into the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned.  Remove and let cool slightly before serving.   Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.