France · Sweet Dishes · Vegetarian
Pear Clafoutis
Clafoutis is a French baked custard that sits somewhere between a flan and a thick pancake. Pears go into the dish raw, the batter gets poured over them, and 45 minutes later you have something that’s set at the edges, just barely wobbly in the center, and smells like a proper French kitchen.
65 min 265 kcal 6 serves Advanced🌿Vegetarian🇫🇷France★★★★★4.7· 6 reviews
Ingredients
ServingsMetric
- 4 medium pears, ripe but firm
- 100 gall-purpose flour
- 100 gcaster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 250 mlwhole milk
- 50 gunsalted butter, for the dish
- 1 tspvanilla extract
- 1 pinchfine salt
- 1 tbspicing sugar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Use about half the butter to generously grease a ceramic or cast-iron baking dish — something roughly 26–28 cm across.
- Peel the pears, halve them, scoop out the cores with a spoon, and cut into thin slices, about 5 mm thick. Arrange them in a single, slightly overlapping layer across the bottom of the buttered dish.
- Make the batter. Whisk flour, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour the wet mixture into the flour and whisk until you have a thin, lump-free batter — about the consistency of single cream.
- Pour the batter slowly and evenly over the pears. Dot the remaining butter in small pieces over the surface.
- Bake for 40–50 minutes until the top is deep golden brown, the edges are set and slightly puffed, and the center barely trembles when you shake the dish. A skewer inserted into the center should come out clean.
- Let the clafoutis cool in the dish for at least 15 minutes — it will deflate as it cools, which is normal. Dust generously with icing sugar through a fine sieve and serve warm.
FAQ
Yes, completely normal. Clafoutis is a custard-style bake with a lot of eggs and liquid — it puffs up dramatically in the oven and deflates within minutes of coming out. Test with a skewer: it should come out clean. Give it the full 40–50 minutes.
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Comments (1)
I weigh every ingredient for pear clafoutis instead of using cups. Baking is chemistry. An extra tablespoon of medium pears can push this from perfectly balanced to dense and heavy. A $15 scale pays for itself immediately.