Mother's Day Bliss

I’ve had a perfect Mother’s Day. While I had a bite of my homemade French bread with butter and raspberry jam and drank my café au lait, I opened Kirstie’s gorgeous goodies: a beautiful card with a fairy and the prettiest handbag decorated by my little artist herself. Even the gift wrap was decorated by her, and it was the loveliest gift wrap ever. I kept kissing her and telling her that it was all beautiful, that she was beautiful and that I loved her and was very lucky to be her mom. When Hans came home from his Sunday squash session, we headed to the city for some lunch and some goodies. I was treated to a pair of very cute espadrilles in navy blue with a thin white rim with red stitching. Quite beautiful ( a rounded toe, not a pointy one) and very comfortable. I also got a pretty quiche form in baby pink, a must-have for my clafoutis!

I was dying to make this dessert ever since I saw the recipe in a French cookbook I got a few weeks ago, “De complete keuken van Frankrijk” or “The Complete French Kitchen”. The thing was this wasn’t the only recipe that looked lovely. I saw one with strawberries in a magazine and a few more on internet which all seemed very appealing. Decisions, decisions! In the end I just let myself get inspired by the recipes and created my own! Very brave for a clafoutis virgin but I had nothing to lose! Well let me tell you…it was gorgeous! Not too sweet, a perfect blend of creamy and cakey and so beautiful to see, and the smell! I served it warm with some crème fraîche, powdered sugar and a chilled glass of Chardonnay. Utter Mother Day’s heaven!

What more can I ask for than to enjoy a beautiful dessert outside in my sunny garden with the two I love most?

Here’s the recipe:

200ml cream

100ml milk

1 vanilla pod

½ tbsp almond extract

3 eggs

70g sugar

80g flour

500g strawberries

Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a 25cm quiche form and line with a layer of whole, washed and carefully dried strawberries. I cut the tops off so that they would sit nicely in the dish. Heat 200ml cream, add the seeds from one vanilla pod and boil gently for about three minutes. Remove from the heat and add 100ml cold milk. Let this cool. Meanwhile beat three eggs with 70g caster sugar, 80g flour and ½ tbsp almond extract. Add the cooled cream mixture to the eggs while beating and pour this mix over the berries. Bake for 35-40 minutes and serve warm with crème fraîche and powdered sugar. Bliss!