this recipe is exciting to me for two reasons, I get to use up some apples (I had crispins and pippins) that I had totally forgotten about and I get to use my new vitamix blender. flaugnarde is a french custardy cake similar to a claufotis (claufotis is usually filled with cherries, while flaugnarde are usually filled with apples, pears or other fruits.), it’s also a southern dessert and my grandmother from south carolina made a similar baked custard cake filled with peaches or prunes.

flaugnarde is actually pretty straight forward to put together, if you get your timing right. you need to make the batter first   and let it sit for a little bit.  get the oven going and prepare the pie pan and then prep and cook the apples.

after that it’s all easy as falling off a log.  

serve with the armagnac sauce left from cooking the apples

Apple Flaugnarde

adapted from Saveur

Ingredients

FOR THE BATTER:
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream (half & half or milk are fine)
113g (1 stick/ 8 tbsp). unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
85g (2⁄3 cup) Cup4Cup gluten free flour blend
100g (½ cup) cane sugar
½ tsp kosher salt

FOR THE APPLES:

4 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced*

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp armagnac
½ cup cane sugar

1 ½ tsp turbinado sugar
A pinch of ground cinnamon

Method

1. For the batter: Preheat oven to 400°. Put milk, eggs, 6 tbsp of the butter, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt into a blender, blend until smooth, and set aside. Grease a 10″ pie plate (ceramic or glass work best) with the remaining butter, then set buttered pan in oven to heat.
2. For the apples: Melt the 4 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples, the ½ cup of the sugar, and brandy and cook until apples are slightly softened, glazed and warm, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove pie plate from oven (it will now contain brown butter) and immediately pour in half the batter. Arrange the warm apple slices over the batter, reserving the juices from the apples, then pour remaining batter over apples. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar and a little cinnamon over batter and bake until golden and set in the center, 25–30 minutes. Drizzle with warmed reserved juice from cooking the apples.

*cut and core the apples before peeling and once peeled, sprinkle and toss the slices with lemon juice to prevent browning