Plum & Chocolate Clafoutis & Cookbook Sundays #13

Perhaps it's an age thing, but I swear these days a week goes by in a heart beat.  I don't know where this last week vanished to, but somewhere in the midst of it summer turned to autumn virtually overnight, leaving many of us shivering on chilly mornings and wondering if we in fact even had a summer.  So, with Cookbook Sundays upon us once again (keep reading for more details), I thought I would share with you a recipe from Donna Hay's book "Seasons".

I know this is not the first recipe I've shared with you from this book (see also Grilled Fig, Haloumi & Pomegranate Salad and Lemony Peach Cake), but I hadn't made anything from the autumn section of the book until now, and since I'd been given a big bag of beautiful blood red plums, the Plum and Chocolate Clafoutis seemed like a perfect choice.

These made a beautiful dessert for evenings which have a definite nip in the air - sweet, luscious plums, nestled in chocolatey batter, with an extra chocolate hit from the chunks of chocolate - I used Whittaker's Berry & Biscuit to which I think I have become totally addicted.  This also makes a fairly light dessert and leftovers, should you happen to have them, reheat well in the microwave for just 30-40 seconds, or are equally good cold for breakfast.

These are the work of moments to make;  they could easily be prepared in advance and then simply baked off just before serving.  I prepared these in individual dishes, but this could just as easily be made in a single larger dish.  You could substitute any manner of fruit in this dish - cherries, apricots, pears would all be good alternatives.  I hope you'll give it a try.

Plum & Chocolate Clafoutis Recipe

Adapted (only slightly) from recipe by Donna Hay

from "Seasons"

Serves 4

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

50g (1/3 cup) all purpose flour

25g (1/4 cup) cocoa

75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

3x eggs

250ml (1 cup) cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

150g (1 cup) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

25g (1 oz) butter

6x plums, halved and stoned

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C (355 degrees F).

Sift the flour, cocoa and caster sugar together into a medium bowl.

Put the eggs, cream and vanilla into a separate bowl, and stir to combine.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, and whisk to combine.  Stir in the chocolate.

Place 4x 1-cup capacity shallow dishes on a baking sheet.  Divide the butter evenly between the dishes and put the dishes into the oven for a couple of minutes until the butter has melted.

Remove dishes from the oven, pour the chocolate batter into the dishes, top with the plums.  Return to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the clafoutis are puffed and cooked through.

Now read on to learn more about Cookbook Sundays.

 

If you're anything like me you have dozens of cookbooks gathering dust on your bookshelves, some of which have never even been cooked from.  Sure I spent hours browsing through them when I first bought them, marking all the recipes I was going to make with little post-it notes, and yet still those books languish in the bookcase and never make it to the kitchen.  There are others from which I have made but one recipe which was such a resounding success that I've made it over and over again, and yet somehow I've never made anything else from that book.  Sound a bit familiar?!

Take comfort - you are not alone, and now Cookbook Sundays is your opportunity to change that.  Every Sunday I'm going to share with you a recipe that I haven't made before from one of my ever expanding collection of cookbooks.  And, because I know that if you have read this far then you are guilty of this too, I'm inviting you to join in with me.  Each week my Cookbook Sundays post will have a linky for you to share something you've cooked from one of your cookbooks.

The rules for joining in are simple:

1. Your post must state the author and the title of the book your recipe has come from.
2. Your post must mention Cookbook Sundays and link back to this post.  Including the Cookbook Sundays badge is optional, but always appreciated.
3. You may submit as many entries as you like, and you may use the same cookbook as many times as you like.  Old posts are also welcome.
4. Lastly,  remember that what goes around, comes around - one of the reasons you are participating in this is because you want people to read your posts, so do the right thing and go and visit a few of the other participants - you can even "Like" your favourites. 

Now, go and dust off those cookbooks and get cooking!  Use the linky tool at the end of this post to submit your entry/entries - simply scroll down to where it says "You are next ... Click here to enter", and then follow the instructions.  The linky will be open for one week.

Lastly, if you would like to use the Cookbook Sundays badge in your post, simply copy the code in the box beside the badge below and paste it into your post.  Feel free to also use it in your sidebar if you wish.

<a href="http://couscous-consciousness.blogspot.com/p/cookbook-sundays.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa476/Susan_Busch/CookbookSundaysBadge.jpg" border="0" alt="CookbookSundays"></a>