A classic French breakfast or dessert, packed with wild blueberries, and served with a spoonful of whipped cream, blueberry clafoutis is a bit like a giant blueberry pancake. It's a nice way to celebrate a nice bucket of summer fruit, and easy to make with just a cast iron skillet. It also reheats better than pancakes. Today I'll walk you through how I make one.

A slice of blueberry clafoutis dessert garnished with whipped cream wild blueberries and marigold flowers. — A perfect breakfast, brunch of dinner.

What's a Clafoutis?

Clafoutis is a classic French breakfast or brunch dish in the same family of baked, batter-based breakfast dishes as things like pancakes, aebleskiver and Dutch babbies (try saying that five times fast 🙂.

A finished blueberry clafoutis in a cast iron pan with a slice removed. — Blueberry clafoutis.

You can use many different berries and stone fruits in the dish, but the most famous version I know is cherry clafoutis, which traditionalists may insist should be made using whole cherries that haven't been stoned. For the record, it is noticeably juicier with the stones in, if potentially hazardous.

Technically speaking this a flaugnarde, which is basically a clafoutis made with fruit other than cherries, but getting servers to learn the difference was always a fools errand for me.

This is a really forgiving, flexible dish that's pretty hard to mess up. It also reheats better than regular pancakes if you have leftovers. I'm using wild blueberries here, and if you don't pick your own I'd recommend using frozen wild blueberries. You could also use serviceberries. Conventional high bush blueberries are much more watery and I haven't used them for this.

Wild low bush blueberries growing outside ready to pick. — Wild low-bush blueberries.

How to Make It

First you make a simple batter of milk, eggs, flour, sugar and aromatics. For the aromatics, I always add a little vanilla, here in the form of my wild vanilla extract made with dried Galium triflorum.

Adding flour and sugar to clafoutis batter. — Adding flour and sugar.

Adding vanilla extract to clafoutis batter. — Adding vanilla extract.

Adding whole eggs to a blueberry clafoutis batter. — Adding whole eggs to the batter.

Finally I grate in a little lemon zest, as pureeing it can give an off-flavor. Since I use gluten free flour at home, I simply puree the batter with a handblender. If you use all purpose flour you can mix everything in a bowl as for pancakes.

Pureeing clafoutis batter with a hand blender. — Pureeing the batter with a stick blender.

Adding grated lemon zest to a clafoutis batter. — Adding grated lemon zest to the batter.

Clafoutis can be baked as-is, but I prefer to pour it into a hot cast iron skillet first. This helps the blueberries not sink to the bottom and gives the top an attractive, bountiful look. I pour some of the batter into the hot pan, add the blueberries, then the rest of the batter.

Pouring clafoutis batter into a cast iron pan. — Pouring batter into a hot pan.

Pouring the rest of the batter over blueberries in a pan to make clafoutis. — Pour the remaining batter over the blueberries.

Bake the clafoutis until a knife comes out of the center clean and cool for a few minutes to help it set.

A cooked and perfectly browned blueberry clafoutis in a cast iron pan. — The finished clafoutis.

Cut the clafoutis into slices and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar, whipped cream, fresh berries and a few leaves of mint or flowers like creeping bellflower or aromatic signet marigolds, of you have them. A drizzle of maple syrup was never a bad idea either.

Cutting out a slice of blueberry clafoutis with a spatula. — Cut the clafoutis into wedges.

A fork digging into a slice of blueberry clafoutis. — Serve the clafoutis with wild vanilla whipped cream, powdered sugar and fresh blueberries.

A perfectly cooked wild blueberry clafoutis on a plate garnished with whipped cream, marigold flowers, fresh blueberries, powdered sugar and mint leaves.

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Wild Blueberry Clafoutis / Flaugnarde

A tender blueberry clafoutis packed with fruit and perfect for breakfast or brunch.

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Total Time45

Course: Breakfast, Brunch

Cuisine: French

Servings: servings

Calories: 1361kcal

Author: Alan Bergo

Cost: 5

Equipment

1 10 inch cast iron skillet
1 2 quart mixing bowl

Ingredients

1 ¼ cup half and half or milk
½ cup plus one tablespoon flour
1 tiny pinch (⅛th tsp) ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
⅓ cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon melted butter plus more for greasing the dish
A few scrapes of Meyer lemon zest
Pinch of kosher salt
2 cups wild blueberries

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 350F.
Whisk all ingredients together if you're using all purpose flour. I use gluten free flour so I puree it with a hand blender as it won't develop the gluten. Grease a 10 inch cast iron pan or similar and heat it on medium heat until hot.
Pour in a thin layer of batter so the bottom of the pan is covered, about ¼ inch. Wait 30 seconds for it to begin cooking around the edges, then add the blueberries, spreading them out on the batter evenly.
Pour over the rest of the batter and bake until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 20-25 minutes). Allow the clafoutis to rest for a few minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.
Serve wedges of the clafoutis with whipped cream, fresh wild blueberries, a dusting of powdered sugar or drizzles of maple syrup.
If you have some edible flowers like creeping bellflower or aromatic signet marigolds they make a nice garnish.

Video

Notes

You can use frozen or fresh wild blueberries or huckleberries to make this dish.

Nutrition

Comments

Ellen

August 16, 2025 at 9:16 am

I don't often bake with gluten free flour, but a friend (celiac) is coming to visit so I'll be experimenting. Why is the batter beaten differently with gluten-free flour than it is with APF?

- Alan Bergo
  
  August 16, 2025 at 9:47 am
  
  Hi Ellen. I don’t puree things made with APF as it makes it gummy and activates the gluten.