The Easiest, Any-Fruit, Baked Dessert (Vegan Clafoutis)
Baking tends to be a more time-intensive, technique-heavy form of cooking. But it doesn’t have to be! I’ve recently started making these super easy fruit dessert (vegan clafoutis), and my smile and my waistline are both a little broader. These delicious, cake-like desserts are as simple as they come, plus it is extremely versatile. It takes very few ingredients, can be mixed all in one bowl, and can be made with whatever type of fruit you have around. The resulting confection is beautiful, delicate, sweet, and somewhat spongy- perfect for dessert, breakfast, or an afternoon tea. This dish is similar to a crisp or a cobbler, but fancier tasting, and even easier.
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About Vegan Clafoutis (Vegan Clafouti)
Clafoutis- I’ve thrown that word around once or twice, but lets get into what it really means. A clafoutis is a French dessert (French, so ignore the “s” and say “clafouti”). It is traditionally made with cherries tossed in a simple batter and baked. As an aside, unless you’re using black cherries, technically you’re not making a clafoutis, you’ve made a flaungardes- personally, I’ve decided to ignore that tidbit and call them all clafouti. I like the word better, and the term is more well known. Technical terms aside, the easy fruit dessert can be made with a simple vegan recipe, using just 7 ingredients (plus fruit).
Looking for Fruit-Desserts? Try one of these!
- Almond, Oat and Apple Cookies (Vegan)
- Easy 4-Ingredient Filo Maple Vegan Apple Tart
- Simple Vegan Lemon Cake with Coconut and Almonds
- Salted Dark Chocolate Blackberry Vegan Brownies
- Vegan Cranberry Banana Bread
Any-Fruit Baked Dessert
I made the bold claim that this recipe works with any fruit- I want to clarify and say that it has worked with every fruit I’ve tried so far. At the time of writing this, I have tried making a vegan clafoutis with apples, pears, blueberries, and blood oranges. Not a failure yet! My favorite so far has been the apple, because honestly I’m just an apple kind of girl- it’s the New Englander in me. My boyfriend was more a fan of the blood orange. I’m going to keep on trying out clafoutis (in the name of science), but if any of you find a fruit that doesn’t do well in this easy fruit dessert, let me know in the comments below. Let me know if you try a particularity good one too- I’d love to hear about your baking adventures!
How to Make These Clafoutis
When making the vegan clafoutis, mix the dry ingredients first and then add the wet to the dry. Let the batter sit for at least 10 minutes while you prep your fruit. Since fruit comes in all different shapes and sizes, there is no single way to prep, but you can follow these two steps, and get yourself somewhere great. First remove any parts you don’t want to eat (stems, peels, skins, pits, etc). Second chop the fruit into bite sized pieces, or into a size you would find pleasant in a pastry. Be extra delicate with oranges and more juicy fruit- you don’t want to wring too much juice out.
Add the fruit to the batter and gently fold- again, we’re not trying to juice the fruit in the process. Grease a pan and pour the fruit and the batter in, moving the fruit around if necessary to distribute it fairly evenly. Bake for around 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (and before the edges burn… oops!). When you remove it from the oven, it will still be fairly soft- wait 10 minutes before trying to remove it from the pan. Allow it to cool completely for a more cake-like dessert, or eat right way for a slightly more crumbly, pudding type dessert.
The Easiest, Any-Fruit, Baked Dessert (Vegan Clafouti)
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup vegan sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- Liquid from one can of chickpeas (about half a cup of aquafaba)
- 3 tbsp. vegan milk or water
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp. vegan butter or coconut oil, melted
- 2 cups of fruit, any type.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Grease a 9 inch cake pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add the aquafaba (chickpea liquid), vegan milk or water, vanilla extract, and melted vegan butter or coconut oil and whisk well. Let the batter stand for at least 10 minutes while you prepare the fruit.
- Prepare your fruit by washing and removing any inedible parts (peels, skins, stems, etc.) and cutting it into bite-sized pieces. After the batter has been sitting for 10 minutes, add the fruit and gently fold it so it is all covered. Transfer the fruit and all the batter into the greased pan and place in the oven.
- Bake for 30 minute, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (and before the edges burn). Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before running a knife along the edges and flipping the pan over to remove the cake. Flip it right side up and let it cool all the way before serving.
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Let’s hear from you…
- What type of fruit would you try in your any-fruit vegan clafoutis?
- Do you like fruit desserts, or are you more of a chocolate fan?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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I love this recipe! The crumb was lovely, soft and bouncy. Mine didn’t flip well and wasn’t particularly attractive in the turnout, but the taste was wonderful. I added peaches and plums, and I definitely plan to bake this vegan clafouti again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It’s one of our favorite recipes to throw all sorts of fruit in. One thing I’ve found since writing this recipe is that sometimes (especially when your fruit is very wet), serving it from the pan is better than trying to flip it. Peaches and plums sounds like such a lovely late summer combination- delicious!
Love this recipe! I’ve done apple and pears so far. Tinned pear tonight and plan on doing feijoas at some point too
Thanks so much for your lovely comment Barbara! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed our clafoutis recipe- plus now I’ve learned about feijoas, which I’d never heard of.
This recipe was a delicious way to make use of the raspberries and aquafaba I already had in my fridge. I macerated the given measurement of fruit with one tablespoon of cane sugar, then gently spooned small dollops of the mixture into the rested batter.
I baked it in a springform pan with a parchment lining for the bottom and a generous rub of Vegan-suitable butter on the sides, the resulting product was stunning. Dark and crispy edges, light and creamy filling; like a delicate cheesecake. I love that this recipe is easy, uses minimal ingredients, and can be made in many different fruit flavor variations.
Thanks for sharing Ruby! It’s one of our favorite ways to use up leftover bits of fruit too, and I love the idea of macerating the fruit. So glad you enjoyed it!
I’m making this with fresh bing cherries ( pitted and halved) and its in the oven now. I was worried about the recipe temperature- 450 degrees, but went with it. There is 10 minutes to go , and it was already very browned, so I laid a piece of foil on top. (loosely)
The batter was very thick and kind of spongy – is that correct? Folding in the cherries was a bit of a challenge.
I’m a novice, and making for my vegan colleagues.
Is the temperature correct?
Is that the batter I should have expected?
I followed the recipe exactly.
Hi Sharyn, thanks for the comment! The temperature is correct- I know it’s high so the foil to stop browning was a good idea. The batter sounds about right, it should be fairly thick although not difficult to fold the fruit in.
Let me know how it works out!
Hello! I made this with pears yesterday and I added more pears than suggested (almost double) and it came out lovely. Question for you: do you think if I whipped the aquafaba it would make the batter lighter? It does taste nice but I’m wanting the batter to be a little less dense. I’m actually not sure what clafoutis should taste like… is the bake dense like that? Do you think I added too many pears? It is a lovely bake and such an easy and pretty way to use good fruit. Thank you for it 👍🤙
Hi Kenna,
Thanks for the comment! I funny the texture to be fairly light, although certainly not angel food cake level of fluffy. I’ve never tried whipping the aquafaba first, but I think it’s worth a try. Just make sure to fold it gently into the other ingredients. A lot of fruit will probably make it a little bit dense, although I’m sure also super delicious!
I’ve lived in France 30 years ago and I have fond memories of summertime plum Clafoutis. It was so nice to find your recipe. It came together really quickly. I was even able to use firm, not yet ripe Asian pears and it was awesome. However, I have a question: I can really taste the soda. I followed the recipe to a T —any suggestions to help temper it? Thank you so much for offering this recipe!
Hi Sadie,
Thanks for the comment! Pears sound delicious here. You could try reducing the baking powder a little bit- it will likely be a little bit more dense, but hopefully that will make the baking soda flavor a little less noticeable. It is also possible that the flavor would be neutralized more with more acidic fruit, but I’m not totally sure.
Hello, again, Thank you for your reply. I think may see the problem. The orginal recipe calls for POWDER not SODA. Should it be made with sada? You mention, “it will likely be a little bit more dense, but hopefully that will make the **baking soda** flavor a little less noticeable.” Thoughts? I REALLY LOVE THIS RECIPE. I love that it’s so simple, can be made without pantry staples, has no call for soy, and I now may have a way to use up strangling fruit by magically transforming to this maybe keeper recipe. 😀
PS Mea culpa for the typos. Meant to say can be made with pantry staples. Maybe soda is the ticket. Ugh. Without glasses I’m useless. 😉
Have never made a Clafoutis so I’m wondering if I can substitute flour with almond flour? TIA
I’ve never tried these with almond flour- if you give it a shot, please report back!
Actually I did try your recipe yesterday with almond flour and it worked out well. I did look up what the ratio would be for substituting almond flour for white flour and it’s 2:1 so I used 2 cups of almond flour. Since we don’t like very sweet desserts I also cut back on the sweetener to half. Also added a bit of nutmeg but then added cardamon to give it a fresher taste. This recipe is a keeper! Thanks!
Fantastic! So glad it worked out well- I’ll see about trying an almond flour clafoutis in the future!
Great to hear as I was thinking of adding half almond flour too!
I am going to sub in coconut sugar for cane sugar. Btw, isn’t all sugar dairy free or vegan?
I think plums, blackberries or wild blueberries would be nice to try. Thanks for the recipe!
Let us know how it works out- your fruit combination sounds phenomenal!
As far as I know all sugar is dairy free, but depending on where you live it may or may not be vegan. In the United States it’s somewhat common to use animal bones as a bleaching agent when making sugar.
I made this a few times for my vegan friend who isn’t usually so into sweets and she loved it so much that she asked for it as a birthday cake in three layers with three fruits. I did cherry, little local organic strawberries, and pear. I dusted the top with icing sugar and it turned out great and delicious. If you want a pic tell me where to send it. My mom used to make plum clafoutis, topped with plum cordial, and your recipe reminds me of it while being uniquely delicious. Thank you.
I love that so much, I wish I was there to taste it! Thanks for sharing Jennifer! I always appreciate pictures- you can email it to me at admin@veryveganval.com