A what? Many years ago I was part of beach house (picture 7 chatty 20-something me’s crammed into a cheap seaside rental for a week: we did this for 25 years straight! It was total mayhem) and I was flipping through an old Bon Appétit magazine someone had left behind. Poor Bon Appétit. I loved it so. Originally Condé Nast slotted their nascent recipe website epicurious under the magazine, but with the rise of the Web and the collapse of magazines they stopped printing BA and now there’s epicurious. There was the BA TV show but I think we all heard how disastrously that went, popular as it was.

Anyway I make a clafoutis every so often. My first one (from BA) was made with apples, and you can also make them with peaches and cherries. On epicurious’s website now is the plum version. Epicurious describes a clafoutis as a thick fruit pancake, which it is. It’s a weird seasonal hybrid because ideally you use summertime fruit (or apples) and yet you put it in the oven for a hour, which is not ideal on hot days. But it’s worth it. A clafoutis is meant to be served room temperature or slightly chilled, and you can top with ice cream, so I make these in the summer in the morning before it gets too hot and serve them as dinner desserts. You can also serve these at breakfast/brunch, if you want to make one after the sun goes down and refrigerate overnight.

---

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Use enough fruit to make wedges (except for cherries or berries) that will cover the bottom of a large, buttered, oven-proof skillet but don’t squeeze them in there and don’t overlap. Epicurious says to use 6 to 8 medium plums. Roll them around in granulated sugar and line the bottom of the skillet and put that aside.

In a medium bowl whisk together 4 eggs, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Then, whisk in 1 1/2 cups whole milk and 1 tbsp vanilla extract. The funny thing about that house was it rented by the week and we used to go mid- end of August, and by the time we got there there was so much vanilla extract piled up. It was like all the other renters’ packing lists were “sunscreen, beach umbrellas, vanilla extract…”

Anyway, you’ve made a batter so now pour that over the plums in the skillet and put the skillet in the oven. Center rack, epicurious tells us. Bake for about one hour. Take it out and let it cool. I normally serve from the skillet so your skillet is going to be out of commission for the duration. You can “dust with confectioner’s sugar” but that’s extra, especially since I usually top with ice cream. I think dusting with confectioner’s sugar is what they do in France.