Clafoutis is a traditional dessert in French cuisine. A custard baked as a pie, it is truly a special treat. What I have for you today is an adaptation of a traditional clafoutis using pancake mix and served as a breakfast. This is gluten-free but you can use any pancake batter for this recipe. 

Let’s start with the batter, which in this case is nothing more than a pancake mix that I have perfected over the years to prepare light, fluffy and flavorful pancakes that you woul never guess to be gluten-free. I prepare a large container of this to have on hand, here’s my master recipe. Scale up the proportions if you are making a large batch to store in your pantry (3 cups of each flour, 1 tbs of baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 5 tbs of granulated sugar works well)

1 cup gluten-free bread flour (Bob’s Red Mill is my goto brand)

1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour (Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix is a favorite)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tbs granulated sugar

For this recipe you will be using a modified pancake batter in a pie plate. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and spray your baking pan with non-stick spray. Prepare the batter according to these instructions. What makes this a modified batter is tha you are doubling the number of eggs you would normally use. 

2 cups of the pancake mix you prepared earlier

2 cups of water (or milk, either will do)

4 eggs

1 tbs vanilla

3 tbs canola or similar oil

Mix the batter and let it rest for 15 minutes. The resting step is important for any batter as this allows the molecules to absorb the liquid, soften up and start binding together. The bread flour in this mix is particularly absorbent and you may need to add some water to loosen it up to a point where it is pourable but not too wet, which will increase your baking time. 

When the batter is ready, pour a small amount over the bottom of the pie plate. A “small amount” in this case is no more than 1/4″ of depth. Put in the oven for 10 minutes. The point of this step is that you will be adding fresh fruit to the batter and without a “floor” on the pie plate some of the fruit will hit the bottom and scorch. 

Remove the pie plate from the oven and spread some fresh raspberries evenly distributed on the bottom. Keep in mind that less is more in this case, the frest fruit will release liquid as the clafoutis bakes, and with that liquid will come some color that diffuses into the surrounding batter. Too much fruit and you will have a mess, so drop 8-12 raspberries and pour a layer of batter over them. Spread some more respberries to buid up the fruit and finish with another layer of batter. At this point you should have enough batter that the pie plate will be filled near to the top. You can sprinkle some granulated sugar over the top, or if you prefer use some confection sugar when you serve it. 

Place in the middle rack in your oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out dry.