Chocolate Clafoutis--Adapted from Stone Soup

If you've browsed my recipes you can't help but notice my love of French food. Although I have volumes one and two of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the recipes can be quite difficult to tackle. One of my favorite foodie blogs is Stone Soup. Jules is all about being a minimalist cook, which means leaving behind the ridiculously complicated recipes and sticking to basics. She recently released her (free!!) ebook which can be downloaded from her blog! I love the book because all of the recipes are guaranteed to use 5 ingredients or less. Genius!

I had seen the recipe for Chocolate Clafoutis on her blog in the past, but I had forgotten all about it until recently when she released the book. I would describe this lovely dessert to be something that puffs up beautifully like a souffle, but has an almost flan-like texture to it. It's thicker than a regular old cake and has a lovely sweet flavor. I'm happy to say I've lost 5 pounds recently and that includes eating treats like this! ^_^

Chocolate Clafoutis, adapted from Stone Soup

       serves 2

• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of milk (that must be previously thickened using a roux) or cream if you have it
• 2 pieces of dark chocolate (I always use 70% Lindt because it's still sweet)

Jules original recipe is all in grams, so I just used an online conversion chart to figure out the weights in tablespoons. I'm not sure how accurate it all is, but the original recipe is linked above for those of you with a kitchen scale (which I'll be receiving soon!)

Preparation & Cooking Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Jules says to grease 2 one cup ramekins, but my batter rose pretty high so if you have larger ramekins I suggest using them. In a small sauce pan melt one tablespoon of butter and cook in one tablespoon of flour. Let the flour cook for a couple minutes then add a cup of milk (I use whole milk). Bring the mixture to a boil, constantly whisking, and cook until thickened. Let the milk cool while you prep the other ingredients. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and flour. Once the cream mixture has cooled a bit stir that in. Divide the batter between your ramekins and place one piece of chocolate into the center of each, I broke mine into little pieces first. Bake for 25 minutes or until the clafoutis have risen like a souffle and browned on top. Let cool slightly but serve warm. You can use more chocolate if you'd like, berries would also be heavenly in this. Dust with powdered sugar or top with whipped cream or even ice cream and enjoy!