Flaugnarde

This weekend was bonkers in the best possible way. Family, food, fog, a baby both cutting his first tooth and learning to crawl (and trying finger food - it was a breakthrough day indeed).

At the eleventh hour, I learned I was to bring dessert to a dinner party. Having just made an eggy dish for brunch, I knew I had eggs but little else.

Cue a mad dash to the old stalwarts - a quick look in the Moosewood, a glance in Feast, and then hitting pay dirt when I found a tremendously easy and beautiful-looking dessert from Real Simple - Martha's people called it a pear custard, but I decided to call it a clafoutis, something I had come across while reading this blog. It called for nothing more than three eggs, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, 1/3 cup each of flour and sugar, 3/4 cup of milk and three pears.

Well, I had one pear. And a couple of apples, which seemed like a good start.

Upon further research, it turns out a clafoutis is specific to the fruit, is, in fact, a baked cherry custard dessert, and what I had made, was a pear and apple baked custard. I discovered that if I was going to go the provincial French route, then what I had truly made was more along the lines of a flaugnarde.

I know. It's so obvious, isn't it?

The true joy in discovering this dessert lay in three things:

1. It's stunningly beautiful. Well, at least you have to admit the above looks like it took some sort of effort, right?

2. I have never made anything easier in my life. If you can chop fruit and run a blender and turn on an oven, you've got it made.

3. This may be one of my favorite kinds of recipes - the kind you can throw together at the last minute using whatever you have to hand. I foresee making this with raspberries, bananas, strawberries, figs, plums, peaches, apricots.

Don't forget to sprinkle confectioner's sugar on. It gives it that little extra something.