Some imaginary reader may be wondering, has it finally happened?

Has Kelp tired of gelatin?

But no, not really. It’s true I did get a little burnt out during previous Jelly Julys, not to say anything of my resident taste-testers. But even then it was more an issue of just being tired in general. I’ve also mentioned in the past that making the item tends to be the easiest part (except if it’s something like a Rainbow Ribbon Mold). Photographing the final product, however, can be an absolute ordeal, and one Jelly July I really put myself through the paces by having to artfully capture multiple frozen treats, an exponential increase in difficulty.

But yes, this isn’t gelatin either.

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A Clafoutis By Any Other Name

This is actually the first in a series I’ve been bandying about in my head where I make stuff I run into whilst playing Final Fantasy XIV. (As an aside, that copy pasta is so ingrained in my head, I almost started typing ‘critically-acclaimed’ from sheer muscle memory…) You can ‘synthesize’ gelatin as a ‘Culinarian’, and then use it to make a number of familiar (and not-so familiar) treats, one of which being a Fig Bavarois. Having a lot of experience with Bavarian creams, I felt confident I could just figure out the recipe. What I felt less confident about, was the figs – I don’t dislike figs, but I also don’t really seek them out, and it seemed obvious the dish in-game was working with fresh ones. Like most human beings, if there’s a step in a project that I’m unfamiliar with, it gets shunted into the “don’t wanna start it” pile.

Flash forward months later, and I come across another dish in-game called Flaugnarde.

Upon doing a little more cursory research, it seemed to be a fairly obscure dessert – not in composition, so much, but in name – with a much more familiar cousin, a clafoutis. Now, to be honest, I didn’t really know what a clafoutis was either, other than it was. In other words, I just knew it was some kind of dessert. With a little more research, I was able to determine that a) I would like to eat a flaugnarde and b) it was relatively straightforward to make, so I put it on my to-do list and, a whole month? or so later, it got done.

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Apple…Pudding?

Well, not quite. While I’m very clear on the various terms used for gelatin desserts, I tend to be a little fuzzy on everything else, and this is before you get into regional differences with how terms are used. There were a few people that called a flaugnarde a custard, but I don’t think it meets the bar..it’s certainly prepared nothing like a crème anglaise. Both clafoutis and flaugnarde were also compared to some sort of pancake, which…I mean I guess?

Hello, is this a pancake? No, it’s Patrick.

But the in-game description used pudding, and honestly, it could be right. My Californian English understanding of pudding definitely isn’t very compatible with the reality of the flaugnarde, but I’ve seen what the Brits call pudding, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it qualifies. Anyways.

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Please Just Tell Me What’s In It

Not much. The recipes I found didn’t necessarily use apples, but the FFXIV one did, so apples it is. The batter is dairy, eggs, flour, and sugar. Combine and pour and bake. The hardest part, for me anyways, was breaking down the apples – I feel no shame about this, given it’s a task so onerous they’ve had machines for it for well over a century.

When looking up when these first were sold, I stumbled across The Quality Internet of Eld

After slicing up the apples, I made an effort to thoroughly combine the batter with what little upper body strength I have, and stuck it in the oven. After letting it cool and dusting with powdered sugar, we were in business.

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Is It Good?

Well, it couldn’t not be, really. I was unhappy with the recipes I found online, making a few adjustments here and there, but still. It’s apples and batter. If I was to make it again, I’d stack some apple slices around the side edges of the pan for better cooked batter to cooked apple ratio.

Pictured: not quite enough apple slices, apparently.

My resident taste-testers also said that, while good, it was a bit plain, and could have benefitted from something like a berry sauce. I will note that the in-game description mentioned ‘fragrant spices’, but none of the recipes I came across had anything besides vanilla extract. You could add like, cinnamon or whatever, I guess. I kinda like plain desserts myself so, this wasn’t really a bug, but a feature, as the kids say.

My cobbled-together recipe follows, with some preamble in case you decide to make this yourself.

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Recipe

Apples
3 eggs
1¼ cup milk
1 cup flour
⅔ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt

1. Locate some sort of oven-safe dish that would accommodate something like a tart. (I used a 9-inch glass pie dish.)
2. Peel and semi-thinly (¼”) enough apples to neatly and snugly arrange in your selected dish (but don’t put them in there yet. Maybe.)
3. Combine eggs, milk, flour, ⅓ cup of sugar, vanilla, and salt.
4. Optional: Pour a thin layer of the batter into your dish and cook it a little, like on the stovetop. You can then arrange the apples on top of this layer. How much does this matter? Eh.
5. After you finish with the apples, evenly sprinkle the remaining ⅓ cup of sugar over them, and then pour the batter over.
   
   
   My apples were well and completely covered. Were they supposed to be? Who knows.
   
6. Bake in a 350F~375F oven for roughly a half-hour. Should be golden brown and puffy.
7. Let cool for another half-hour, and dust with powdered sugar or whatever and serve.