Love gooseberries? Try this delicious gooseberry clafoutis recipe.
Gooseberries are one of my absolute favourite summer fruits. Growing up we had a gooseberry bush at the bottom of our garden. It was always such a treat, mid-summer, to venture down and eat gooseberries straight from the bush, still hot from the July sun. While I still enjoy eating gooseberries straight up, I’m always on the lookout for good gooseberry recipes.
I once saw one of my favourite TV chefs, Nigel Slater, cook cherry clafoutis on TV. It looked absolutely amazing and I made a mental note to myself that I bet it would also be good made with gooseberries. That thought went right out of my head until the other day when I bought some cheap Scottish gooseberries on a whim from a market stand in Edinburgh. I was going to eat them raw, but then just in the nick of time Nigel’s cherry clafoutis and my hunch about gooseberries came back to me.
I’m pleased to say my hunch was right, and my partner has requested that I make more and more clafoutis. Coming from him this is definitely a sign of a good clafoutis! So you can enjoy it too, today I’m sharing this delicious gooseberry clafoutis recipe with you.
What Is Clafoutis?
Clafoutis is a French dish, typically made with cherries in a thick silky batter. It makes for a fantastic summer dessert, made at the height of soft fruit season. The sweetness of the batter combined with the sharpness of the gooseberries just hits the spot!
Gooseberry Clafoutis Recipe
Adapted from Nigel Slater.
Gooseberry Clafoutis
Ingredients
- 400 g gooseberries
- 30 g butter plus extra to grease your baking dish
- 2 eggs
- 150 ml milk
- 90 g granulated sugar
- 90 g flour
- 2 tablespoons of icing sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 180°C/gas mark four.
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Cut the tops and stalks off of your gooseberries, and give them a good wash.
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Butter a roughly 20cm pie dish or baking tin and then lightly sprinkle with a little bit of icing sugar. Place your gooseberries in the dish.
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Beat your eggs and sugar together until creamy. Then add your flour (sifted), vanilla essence and milk and mix well until combined.
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Melt your butter in a small pan and add to the mix, stirring well.
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Pour the batter over the gooseberries, and place your pan in the oven for around 35 minutes, or until your clafoutis is puffed and golden brown and a skewer or knife comes out clean. I had to place some baking parchment over my clafoutis at around the 20 minute mark to stop it burning, so keep an eye out!
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Dust with icing sugar and serve warm, perhaps with a spot of cream!
For the photos, I garnished my gooseberry clafoutis with some elderflower. The raw flowers are edible and work really well with gooseberries! You can even make an elderflower cordial from them. See my guide to edible flowers for more edible flower ideas.
I hope you enjoy this gooseberry clafoutis! Do you have any good gooseberry recipes? Do share in the comments below!
