Caramel Fig Clafoutis

squeezing out the last bits of summer

We’ve reached one of my favorite times of the year, when summer starts fading away and temperatures begin to cool off signaling the beginning of all things warm and cozy. We’re in the season where the weather is pretty close to perfect and cool mornings have you thinking of cinnamon and spice and warm afternoons keep you yearning for juicy summer berries. We’re squeezing out the last of our summer tomatoes and peaches and starting to look towards apples and pears and in this transition period, we find ourselves with figs.

At the grocery store last week, there was a large display with flats of soft, sweet figs and I couldn’t resist bringing home close to four pounds of figs without one single plan as to what to do with them. So of course, we turned to a classic. A clafoutis is a French custard dessert, dappled with fresh fruit (cherry is most common) with a texture that falls somewhere between a flan and a bread pudding. It is truly one of the simplest desserts to make—you just blend a handful of staple ingredients and pour the batter over your fresh fruit. Because I love the way that figs and caramel pair, I made a quick skillet caramel sauce that gets poured over the fruit before the custard. It’s a perfect late summer dessert.