Happy Halloween, tomorrow! What will you be for this momentous occasion? JT and I will share a costume, one that he thought up! I need mine for work on Tuesday and he needs it for Wednesday! Good timing! We’re Phantom of the Opera! Well, I hope you all have a great time Trick or Treating tomorrow night!
As you know during our cooking class in Lyon, we made this absolutely delightful Claffoutis with a wonderful Caramel Sauce. Chef Villard was kind enough to provide the recipes for the dishes we made together in his kitchen and we recreated the entire dinner for my friend Barb and her hubby (Profiteroles and Ponytails).
Pear and Milk Chocolate Clafoutis with Caramel Sauce
Makes 6 Claffoutis about 10cm or 4 inches in diametre
Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 80 g granulated sugar
- 40 g all purposes unbleached white flour
- 100 mL Carnation Evaporated Milk (or cream)
- 150 mL milk (I used skim)
- 2 ripe bosc pears
- 50 g Lindt milk chocolate, chopped
- 5 g butter
- 5 g sugar
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 175° C (350° F).
- Butter the pans and dust with sugar until sides and bottom are totally coated.
- In a bowl, mix the sugar and flour well. Make a well in the centre and slowly pour the cream in and then the milk. Add the lightly beaten whole eggs and yolk and mix delicately until all of the flour and sugar are combined.
- Peel and cut up the pears into smallish cubes (1 cm or 0.5 inch), divide evenly in the 6 pans. Add the chocolate so that it is evenly distributed in each pan.
- Pour the egg mix into the pans dividing equally among the 6.
- Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until firmly set. Cool in pans and remove carefully.
Set aside.
You can make the traditional caramel sauce, or try this unique microwave version.
Caramel Sauce Ingredients:
- 200 g sugar
- 50 g water
- 150 mL heavy cream (I did not substitute this one as the sauce needs the fat)
- 15 g unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
Directions:
- Add the sugar and water to a heavy bottomed pan and heat on a low setting until the sugar is dissolved and has cooked to a beautiful golden caramel colour (be careful, I burned my first two attempts!)
- DO NOT STIR. Apparently stirring causes the sugar to crystallize and you will not have a smooth sauce.
- When you have achieved the desired colour, add the cream carefully and whisk well. Add the butter and a pinch of salt. Allow to cool.
Assembly:
- Warm the clafoutis in the oven for about 10 minutes.
- On a large rimmed plate, pour the caramel sauce into the centre and spread out evenly.
- Drop one clafoutis into the centre of the sauce and serve warm.
And that concludes our dinner party from Lyon. I hope some of these recipes will inspire you to make something similar. Cheers.
[…] good friends Rae and Mon over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and I made this new rendition of the clafoutis we made in Lyon; I dare say I like this one a touch more, or at least it hit my taste buds […]
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Thank heavens I’m catching up!! I almost missed this one! I love clafoutis!! Then you’ve got a caramel sauce to top it all, fantastic!! (can you tell I’m craving sugar right now, lol!)
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It’s a lovely and relatively simple dessert to make, and it sound so fancy!
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What a delightful dessert Eva – I never had a non-cherry clafoutis before but it looks the very picture of tastiness! Definitely something to try soon. When I spent the day at a cooking school place in Paris we also made a caramel sauce but the chef there was a big advocate of not adding water to the sugar. He said it made it melt more easily, quickly, and smoothly and was less likely to burn… apparently. Worth a try both ways I guess, but personal preference ultimately I think. Both ways have their merits.
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Thanks Charles, my Mom used to make caramel sauce with only the sugar. I’m going to try it that way next time, I’m sure I will have lots of opportunity as we’re in the midst if entertaining season!
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i don;t think they could look more moist and rich. sinful almost. I love you used pear and chocolate together. It is such a great combination. Hope you get your power back soon!
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Thanks Jessica, it’s an impressive and very easy dessert, I will definitely make it again!
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I’m seriously feeling envious of Barb right now looking at all these great dishes and the clafouti to top it off. Sorry to hear you’re having problems from the storm. We lost power from wind, but only for a short time…it’s all north of here. Happy Halloween and hope all is right in your world now.
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Thanks Betsy, I’ll surely make this meal again. That’s the nice thing about blogging, you don’t forget!
The power was still out last night when we got home so we checked into a hotel. The house was chilly and pitch dark and I didn’t relish putting on my face by candle light again. I hope it’s back on this morning.
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You do host the best dinners Eva! This looks and sounds so delicious. Have a great Halloween! I hope that your costume went over well today. I have no doubt that it did. 😉
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Thank you so much Kristy! I’d love to have you and Mike over sometime!
After a minor adjustment (I went as Dracula instead of the phantom as I thought I might melt having to wear the mask all night). Other than only 10% dressed up, and I got over feeling like I read the invite wrong, it was fun! Plus I wore my new blood red stilettos!
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It looks delicious, as usual!
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Thank you kindly Amanda.
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This looks delicious, Eva. Good call on using evaporated milk for cream — you can make good caramel out of it, too: some people just boil it in the can.
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Thanks Sharyn, do you mean sweetened condensed milk? I’ve not heard of boiling evaporated milk in the can, I’m going to google it now.
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I think it works with either — sweetened condensed milk is much sweeter, but they both have high natural sugars due to the concentration of the milk.
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Do you know how long to boil it? I would want to give it a go.
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Have a wonderful time being the Phantom! At first I wasn’t sure how you and JT were going to be able to ‘share’ a costume – that had my mind spinning. I love the look of this dessert and the flavours must be so delicious. I’d like to try this xx
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It is a lovely dessert, Charlie, and oh so easy to prepare. I also really loved the caramel sauce with it. Let me know how you enjoy it if you do get to trying it.
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That is one awesome desserts friend, everything decadent 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Thank you kindly CCU.
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I thought you made 6 Clafoutis, there are only 5 in the photo, did the cook eat the 6th?????
Sorry to learn you are also affected by Sandy, she sure is making life difficult for a lot of people, we are not completely out of the woods yet.
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Hi Norma, the photo of the five were from Lyon, I actually did make six and in fact I even ate one (I usually don’t).
Yes that storm is a doozy, thanks for your good wishes, I hope the worst is over for everyone.
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Wonderful autumn clafoutis, Eva. The sauce makes it an elegant party dish.
Strangely I have always made clafoutis with milk only (no cream), but I suppose the cream is the Lyon touch 😉
I hope you have the power back soon again… I would also worry a lot about my freezer…
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Thanks Sissi, it’s really tormenting me while I am at work. Other than calling my neighbours (which I might do as we get on well) I wouldn’t know how to find out if it came back on.
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Sounds like a very tasty dessert, Eva.
Sorry to hear about your blackout/power outage. I hope you’re over it by now … it’s almost noon. We haven’t experienced one in quite some time and other that a lot of wind and rain, the effects of Sandy haven’t been too bad in my area. We’re pretty lucky.
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Thanks Maria, the power was taken out by a huge evergreen that toppled over from the wind. Really sad. I suspect I’ll have to toss everything out of the fridge and freezer tonight. Such a shame since we recently stocked up.
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Chocolate and caramel…this is definitely the keeper!
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Thank you kindly Angie.
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I still haven’t planned a costume for Halloween…. possibly a pirate (again). There aren’t any trick-or-treaters in my neighbourhood, so I’ll be going home to hand out candy, roast pumpkin seeds, and maybe watch a movie.
Your clafoutis looks delicious! So many great ingredients in this dessert. Yum!
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Thanks Amber they were really tasty. I suspect almond milk would be very tasty as a milk substitute in this one.
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What an interesting dessert, Eva, I can’t wait to give it a try. I love clafoutis but I’ve never had one like this. Yum. I hope you get sorted out quickly – such a horrible storm.
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Thanks Maureen, at least our troubles are just inconvenience. My heart goes out to those with serious issues.
The dessert was very tasty, chocolate and pear are a lovely combo.
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These sound delicious, Eva, and making individual servings is such a great idea. I ‘pinned’ the caramel sauce recipe. It really does seem too good to be true.
Hope they get your power restored and that’s the full extent of the problems Sandy causes you.
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Thanks John. It turns out that our car is trapped in the garage! We have an electric door opener with an emergency latch but the garage is so small that the car is blocking the man door. Go figure!
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I love the sound of this dessert and a microwave caramel sounds like a very handy recipe to have up your sleeve. Happy Halloween for tomorrow! 😀
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Thank you kindly Lorraine. We’re in the midst of a blackout right now because if hurricane Sandy, a little creepy that’s for sure!
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