Comments on: anything-but-clementine clafoutis

By: Lindy

Lindy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:17:05 +0000

My first clafoutis last week was apple, and had much less sugar (from a different recipe). I found that it made an excellent breakfast for the next few days: fruit, eggs, milk, low sugar; it seemed pretty logical!

By: Jinhee

Jinhee — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:55:27 +0000

I’ve terrorized my friends and neighbors with badly baked citrus more than once, so I know exactly what happened to your (lovely) clafoutis.

Citrus fruit, papery skins and often piths included, taste wonderful cooked, baked, sauteed, whatever. The seeds on the other hand, release a very bitter taste when cooked. If the seeds are not removed prior to cooking, an otherwise perfect dish/dessert will be doomed. So you’ve got to remove all the seeds.

Of course, most fruits are cooked without their seeds for similar reasons. (Peach stone pie? Pass.) The problem arises with citrus simply because it is customary to peel and section citrus fruits without a knife. Which makes it very easy to forget about removing seeds. Voila! Disaster strikes once again… :)

By: Travels4Food

Travels4Food — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:52:07 +0000

I tried this too, and it was GOD AWFUL, for exactly the vividly-expressed reasons you stated. I usually find Mark Bittman to be an excellent recipe source and I’ll try just about anything with a custard base, but this was a horror show. Thankfully I made it for very kind friends who stammered “no, really, it’s…well…maybe just this piece was bitter…” I found the clementines even made the custard bitter. At any rate, I laughed out loud when I saw your post title, and am relieved to know it wasn’t just my inexperience with baking that caused the fiasco. Thanks.

By: Rox

Rox — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:01:08 +0000

I saw this recipe a few days after it was posted and since then I’ve wanted to try it. Of course I had to wait until I had only apples to work with, but it came out great. I used an oval dish and the batter quantity was perfect for it, but I had to let bake for 70 minutes. I sliced the apples instead of cutting them into cubes, and I think next time I’ll throw some almond slices over it 10 minutes before taking them out.

By: John Eddy

John Eddy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:39:33 +0000

Clementinis Non Gratis

Wish I had read up on this before making it with Clementines ( NY Times mark Bittman) because the result I got was an overwhelming bitterness from the cooked clementines.

Also had to cook it about 55 minutes, but that may be because I used jumbo eggs.

By: Nina

Nina — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:32:45 +0000

I made this with apples last night. It came out wonderful! I cooked the apples on the stove-top with sugar and cinnamon and then baked everything up. It definitely took longer than the 40 min you recommended Deb, but sooo worth the wait.

By: deb

deb — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:13:33 +0000

Not sure how apple slices are candied but I have a candied orange peel recipe here.

By: syl

syl — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:50:28 +0000

Found your site by purely wonderful accident! Can citrus be candied the way they used to candy apple slices in Chinese restaurants? Was wondering if maybe candied sections of the clementines baked into the clafouti might work–sugar coating would melt into the batter and leave still succulent fruit? Am in CA so never saw the orig. recipe in paper.

By: LindaG

LindaG — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:02:40 +0000

This is the first time that I have ever done this. I had read the recipe for the clementine clafoutis in the NYT and promptly misplaced it. Since it sounded good, I googled for the recipe and came upon this site! I SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED THE MAJORITY! After three of us spending over an hour removing membranes from each clementine section (the night before Thanksgiving), I baked the clafoutis as everyone ate the turkey dinner. I looked lovely coming out of the oven – the clementines were tough, chewy and did nothing for the dish – the custard was delicious and next year I will pit summer cherries and try them – or peaches – citrus slices don’t do it! Thanks for trying to put me on the right track – next time I will believe!

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:41:41 +0000

I made this recipe in four individual souffle dishes after removing any bitter strings from the clementines. The batter puffed up and over the dishes enveloping the sweet clementine sections in a lovely, dense, lightly carmelized custard. They made such a big impression on my guests who each loved their individual clafouti. Lightly sweet, lightly acid, and a beautiful custard who could ask for more?