Clafoutis? What?

What the heck is Clafoutis? even after making it...i'm still not quite sure...

Its sort of pancakey, rubbery, fruity not very goodness....but some people love it. It's honestly not my cup of tea... However, I got lucky enough to be partners with the girl who is allergic to cherries. So instead of the usually boring cherries, we used mixed berries which improved it a lot.

To begin, macerate the berries (or cherries) in sugar. Once they sit for about 30 minutes, place them in the bottom of butter large ramekin.

Berries

Create the very loose batter, that is similar to that of a pancake by combining pastry flour, eggs, sugar, salt and milk. Pour over the fruit and bake until set.

Clafoutis before baking

Baked Clafoutis

Swiss Apple Flan

This has a lot of components to it, but is easily done. It wasn't really my favorite either, but I could see how some people would enjoy it. It's got a lot going on at once, which usually i am a fan of but not in this scenario.

To begin, press your pate sable, or 1-2-3 cookie dough into the greased tart tin. Then fill the bottom of the crust with a mixture of crushed almonds, cake crumbs, cinnamon and sugar. Then arrange the sliced granny smith apples in a spiral fashion on top. Bake until the apples are semi tender.

Beginning of Swiss Apple Flan

Once they are semi tender, pour the custard (eggs, heavy cream,sugar, and brandy) over top of the apples and bake until custard is set.

Finished Swiss Apple Flan

Linzer Torte aka The Lovers' Torte
This is a classic but again, not my favorite. The linzer dough smells fantastic with it's toasted hazelnuts and lemon zest. To construct this, select the size "ring" you wish to use. Roll out the linzer dough, and cut a circle slightly larger than the ring. Line the ring with the dough, creating a sort of cup shape. And fill with raspberry jam.

Filled Linzer dough "cup"

Eggwash the rim of the "cup" and cut strip so the dough to form a lattice top. Which is much easier said than done with this dough. The chunks of hazelnuts keep it from being cohesive and it falls apart every single time you go to move it. It got quite frustrating actually but once i switched to a colder piece of dough it went a little easier. Trim the excess dough. Egg wash the lattice and bake until golden brown

One of my finished Linzer Tortes

My classmate's pretty Linzer Torte

So tomorrow is practical day, day 9, and i'm sad to see this class go...