French clafoutis with vanilla ice-cream

Serves: 6

We found this clafoutis recipe when flicking through Chris and Jeff Galvin's beautiful cookbook, Galvin: A Cookbook De Luxe (Absolute Press, £25). Just looking at all the Michelin-starred chefs' classic French dishes made us want to hop across the channel and settle into a little French farmhouse.

Clafoutis is traditionally made with cherries, and this twist on the classic French favourite is worth a try at home – try it for Sunday lunch pud. The Galvins used greengages in their recipe, but we couldn't find them for love nor money this afternoon, so used plums instead – they work just as well.

What's your favourite French pud? Tell us in the comments box below.

Clafoutis with vanilla ice cream

Ingredients

• 120ml milk
• 120ml double cream
• ½ vanilla pod, split in half lengthwise and seeds scraped out
• 4 medium free-range eggs
• 170g caster sugar
• 1 tsp plain flour
• 9 greengages or plums
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6.
2. Put the milk, cream, vanilla seeds and vanilla pod in a pan and bring to the boil; simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
3. Whisk the eggs and caster sugar together in a heatproof bowl until light and fluffy, then add the flour and whisk until smooth.
4. Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Pass through a fine sieve into a bowl or jug.
5. Cut the greengages or plums in half and remove and discard the stones.
6. Cut each half into 3 wedges and divide among 6 shallow ovenproof dishes, about 11cm in diameter.
7. Pour the batter over the greengages so it nearly reaches the top of the dishes. Bake for 9 minutes or until just set.
8. Remove the clafoutis from the oven and place each dish on a serving plate. Dust with the icing sugar and serve each portion with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.