I'm Living on the Edge

Today is our departmental holiday fete. So I need to bring a dessert and since I worked yesterday and Wednesday was gross (raining and cold), there's no milk in the house. Ok, there's skim milk and some 2%. But you can't bake with skim and 2% is for my tea. Don't get between me and my tea.

Long story short, I needed a recipe that could cope with my lack of milk. I also learned (through my vast network of spies) that other people were bringing rum cake and cookies. So that left something fruity.

I have mangoes in the house. I have coconut milk. I have eggs and butter and sugar and flour. Eh, voila. I made this.

Maybe the recipe could be easier, but I'm not sure how. First, you need a kitchen scale, because the recipe is in grams/ml because the author is European. I love this approach, because baking is very precise stuff and because I own a scale (thanks to my husband's brother) and because measuring in metrics is fun.

Preheat to 350 F (or, if you want to get really technical, 356F, since I had to convert from 180C).

So you get out your pie dish (mine is pyrex), and grease it. Then you cut up 400g of Mango. For me, this was about 2.25 medium sized mangoes, and I was not a freak about getting every last bit. Toss the fruit in that greasy pie dish.

Mix up: 80g sugar and 3 eggs, add 15g melted butter and 250ml coconut milk (two thirds of a can), then add 60g flour and whisk it into a batter. I added a shot of vanilla extract because I'm crazy like that.

Pour this mess over your fruit. Put the thing in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes. Seriously, that's it.

I'm planning to sprinkle on some Turbinado sugar once the top sets a little, and you're supposed to dust with powdered sugar after it's done baking (this is one of the iffy parts of the plan - you serve it warm, but you dust with powdered sugar. For me, since I need to drive to school, that's going to be a challenge. The sugar will probably melt in. But whatever, it's about taste, anyway).

She calls this a flognard, which apparently is the term for a clafouti made with any fruit other than cherries. Clafouti is a version of what we call cobbler, fool, betty, buckle, etc. It's fruit on the bottom and in this case the bready part is very puffy and biscuit-like. So if you come from one of those families where cobbler has a Bisquick crust, this is a lot like that. I prefer cobbler to have a crumble/streusel crust, but that's just me.

[EDIT: Taste tests confirm: quite yummy. It has a texture like a very moist bread pudding, not really like cobbler at all. Adding some kind of spice would improve the flavor - various tasters suggested cinnamon, ginger, and garam masala. I think cardamom would be good, too.

The sugar topping was a bit too much texture for my taste, so if I do it again I'll use caster sugar (very fine granulated sugar) to get a smoother sugar crust.

It kept warm really well, too. I baked the flognard at 9:10, took it out just before 10, left the house at 10:30, and arrived at my soiree about 11:10 - still warm. Very nice.]