Apple Flaugnarde

Hello to all and thank you for taking the time to read my first post on the blog.

Today is a sunny yet cold day here in Burgundy. After a walk and a swim with the dog (the dog swam not I) by a nearby brook I came home and decided to make Flaugnarde. So let me introduce you to a delicious staple French dessert that can be done « les yeux fermés » (eyes closed) as we say here. Yes it is that simple to make. They are lots of simple and easy countryside desserts to make that sadly rarely appears in French cookbooks abroad. Editors often seem to think that if it is not complicated or expensive to make, it is not French enough. That is so far from the truth, here homemakers are like homemakers everywhere, and simple cheap and good food will away have their preference.

The Flaugnarde comes for Occitan dialect word “flaunhard” which means soft, duvet, or cosy… Which is a pretty good description of the texture of the dessert. Between a surprising flan and a crêpe texture, with bits of apple that gives it a flavoursome and sweet rustic tang. (Not to be confused with a clafoutis that I’ll present to you come summer when cherries are in season). Auvergne, Limousin and Perigords regions all make claim for this dessert that is often made in winter. DO dare add a bit of cinnamon come Christmas time, I do.

Ingrédients

Full fat cream : 1 cup + 1 TBSP - 250 ml
Milk : 1 cup + 1 TBSP / 25 cl - 250 ml
Caster sugar : ¼ + 1/3 cup  - 130 gr
Plain four ¾ + 1/8 cup - 80 gr
Apples x 3 pommes Reinette/rennet or Golden peeled cored and sliced
Eggs –x 3 size medium or large
Vanilla extract or 1 vanilla sugar sachet
Dollop of butter to grease pan and dot on top.

Preheat oven to 356 F or 180° C
Whisk eggs and sugar vigorously by hand then add the flour and stir in.
Add gradually the cream then milk while stirring delicately then the vanilla extract or vanilla sugar sachet. Set aside.

Butter the bottom and side of asmall to medium oven dish then dispose sliced apples.
Pour batter over it and dot the top with 2 or 3 bean sized bits of butter.
Pop into the “four”… Oups the oven I meant! 40 minutes just below the middle level.
Serve warm or at room temp. Don ’t put it in the fridge !

FOUR is pronounced FOOR, it means oven, but it is also the name given to a theatre play that was a huge flop. Now try and place it into the conversation today! AH ah ah.