Recipe : Pear & Pecan Clafoutis

Those totally naughty lovely people at @SAFruit have been tweeting lots of delicious-sounding recipes lately and, as I was just deciding what to bake with the kids, they tempted me with their recipe for Pear, Hazelnut and Almond Clafoutis. After a quick look in the cupboards, ours was slightly adapted and became Pear & Pecan Clafoutis.

Here's the recipe :

Pear & Pecan Clafoutis

Poached Pears

200g caster sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

2 ripe South African pears, peeled, halved and cored

60ml poire Williams (optional) (I left this out)

Clafoutis batter

30g hazelnuts (or pecan nuts)

120g softened unsalted butter

120g caster sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp milk

100g plain flour

40g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

To serve: crème fraiche, vanilla ice-cream or custard

Serves 4

Preparation time

20 minutes (plus 1 hour cooling)

Cooking time

30 minutes

Method :

For the poached pears, stir sugar, vanilla bean and seeds and 400ml water in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves.

Add pears halves and liqueur (if using), bring to simmer. Cover with a tight-fitting lid, reduce heat to low, simmer for 5 minutes, then cool pears completely in poaching liquid (1hour).

 Drain pears and thinly slice.

Preheat oven to 180°C / fan oven 160°C / Gas Mark 4. Spread hazelnuts on an oven tray and roast, shaking occasionally, until browned (5-6 minutes). Rub with a tea towel to remove skins, then coarsely crush with a rolling pin and set aside. (Or, if using pecans, just snap them into small pieces.)

Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and creamy, or beat with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add milk, beat to combine, then add the flour, almonds and baking powder and fold in with a large metal spoon to combine.

Spread the mixture into a large ovenproof dish (approx. 1 litre) and arrange the sliced pears on top. 

Scatter with crushed hazelnuts (or pecans) and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and cooked through.

When I went to take it out of the oven, I did a bit of a double take - where did all the fruit and nuts go?!

For some reason, they all sank to the bottom, which was a bit of a shame. Probably because I didn't have any ground almonds and left them out of the recipe. It still tastes absolutely gorgeous though. The top is slightly crunchy with the sugar and butter, the pears make it lovely and juicy and moist and the pecans add some extra texture.

It can be served hot with crème fraiche, vanilla ice-cream or custard but is just as good cold cut into slices and eaten as cake.

for more information and recipes : http://www.beautifulcountrybeautifulfruit.com

Other recipes you may be interested in :

Recipe : Banoffee Cake

Madhouse recipe : Strawberry & Mango Cobbler

#VegBoxChallenge - Week 1