chocolate plums Archives - Passionate About Baking

“Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture.”

Mark Kurlansky

I am fascinated by what Katie ate … what she ate all winter, summer and in the seasons in between! Do I sound obsessed? Well maybe I am, but since the word sounds rather harsh, I shall stick with ‘fascinated‘. You might have guessed. Yes indeed, I have a new favourite blog on the block, and this one is an utterly charming one – What Katie Ate, ‘all the way from Sydney‘; a ‘foodie photography blog’.

I discovered her photography quite a while ago googling for pictures for the Daring Bakers Pavlova Challenge, and I was completely smitten. I love the old world rustic charm her pictures offer, very retro and very classic. They instantly struck a chord with me, and dragged me into their realm. I was lost amidst her foodie pictures for a long time, with recipes that seemed to take a new meaning. Food here meant so much more…

A bookmarking frenzy followed, but I soon got involved with work at home and completely forgot about the recipes until I luckily found the very last batch of plums in the market a week ago. Yes, the very last as now they are truly gone. A cherry chocolate clafoutis from What Katie Ate was high on my list, the recipe easy as could be from Julia Childs Mastering The Art of French Cooking. At the very bottom of the post, I read that any stone fruit would work; you could see me SMILE!

I made Olive Oil Schiacciata from her blog last week, and some Triple Chocolate Toblerone Muffins day before yesterday. I wanted to make the clafoutis as well, but was dog tired that day. A quick check of the ingredients late at night had the men in the house peering over my shoulder telling me how hungry they still were, and that the dessert looked so good. There was no escape, and as promised, I had the clafoutis going yesterday morning.

A dessert as simple as this is not to be given the pass. It takes all of ten minutes to put together, about 30 minutes of baking, and 10 minutes of cleaning up. What luxury! Oh and of course, about an hour extra to take pictures, but then, that’s the joy of food blogging! What is food without pictures???

I made individual servings in ramekins I had picked up from Sydney a couple of years ago. Maybe they were a little smaller than regular ramekins, and I had some batter remaining so I filled up a few mini molds too, adding my last few frozen cherries to the plums. Luckily Katie mentioned that the clafoutis deflates pretty soon, so it was a race to get the pictures, but the puffiness was gone within 5 minutes of the blighters being out of the oven. The little rum baba molds really puffed up beautifully, and I am bummed I couldn’t get a decent pic of those… Well, whatevah!!

So here we are, with a final au revoir to my favourite fruity season. Come back soon please!

Notes to self: Don’t forget to add some sugar on top next time. That vanilla sugar would have done these some good. Also, if the plums are tart, like mine were, remember to add 2-3 extra tbsp of sugar. Another thing, don’t over-bake the custards. I should have really taken the rum baba molds out 5-7 minutes before the rest, as they got ever so slightly rubbery. A smattering of chocolate chips would have added to the indulgence, and next year I might substitute 1/2 a cup of milk with low fat cream.

Chocolate Plum Clafoutis

Minimally adapted from What Katie Ate

500gms plums, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup of plain flour

1/4 cup of good cocoa powder {I used Valrhona}

A pinch of salt

2/3 cup of vanilla sugar

1 1/4 cups of milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 eggs, room temperature

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease either one single 10-inch flan/pie dish, heavy cast iron skillet/frying pan, or 6-8 individual flan dishes.
Pit and chop the plums. Arrange in the dish cut-side facing upwards. At this stage, an optional extra is to include a handful of chocolate chips in with the cherries.
Put the flour, vanilla sugar, cocoa and salt into the processor and whiz for 10-15 seconds to mix. Then add the eggs, milk, vanilla extract and process again till well mixed into a batter, about 30 seconds.
Pour the batter carefully over the fruit. Sprinkle a tbsp of castor sugar {a handful for a single large dish} on top and bake in the oven for approx. 20-25 minutes for small ramekins, or an hour for 1 single large dish.

Note: This can also be made with plums, pears, peaches or any stone fruit you like. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you like.

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥