French. Plum. Yum.

Some Sundays we ride our bicycles to our favorite coffee shop in our neighborhood, La Colombe. And while drinking the most delicious latte I will think to myself, “today is a great day to bake something.” Now, the problem is that being a chef when I think that my mind wanders like I have the worst case of Attention Deficit Disorder possible. Chocolate? Fruit? Bars? Cake? Bread?

But thankfully I had a specific fruit in mind yesterday. I had picked up some lovely little plums at the farmers market on Saturday on my way to cater a brunch. I tucked them away in a little bag to use later, and it wasn’t until yesterday-while sipping my foamy loveliness-that I thought a plum clafouti would be a wonderful recipe!

 In it’s essence, a clafouti is a baked custard-like cake. You can use almost any fruit you have on hand and the beauty is that all you need to make it is a blender and a pan. Easy! You throw all the ingredients in, whir it up for about a minute and then bake. And I promise your house will smell like you spent hours whipping up some delicious vanilla-sugar laden delight. Plus, my recipe below uses 2% milk (rather than the traditional whole) and incorporates a bit of ground chia seed for an added omega-3 and fiber boost and a topper of gluten free oats. So this is a delicious dessert you don’t need to feel guilty about. Bon Appetit!

• 1 lb. ripe but firm plums
• 1 ¼ c. 2% milk
• 1/3 cup organic cane sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 T. pure vanilla extract
• 2 T. of each of the following: almond flour, brown rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca starch
• pinch sea salt
• 1 T. ground chia seeds (flax meal if you can’t have chia or can’t find the ground seeds)
• 1/3 c. maple syrup
• 3 T. gluten free oats

1. Butter a ceramic quiche/tart dish or any 9” oven safe baking dish.
2. Cut plums in half, remove seed and sprinkle cut side with a bit of sugar. Set aside.
3. Add the whole milk, 1/3 c. organic cane sugar, 3 large eggs, 1 T. pure vanilla extract and all the flours into a blender. Pop the lid on and crank it up to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the ground chia seeds to the mixture and mix on high speed for another 30 seconds.
4. Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the buttered baking dish. Place in the oven to cook for 5-6 minutes until the bottom layer is beginning to “set”.
5. Remove from oven and place the plums, skin side up, on the batter. Drizzle with the 1/3 c. maple syrup and pour the remaining batter on top. Sprinkle with the 3 T. gluten free oats and place in the oven.
6. Bake 50-60 minutes or until batter has puffed and is golden. Remove from oven, cool 30 minutes to an hour and serve slightly warm.