Stone Fruit Clafouti

Say farmer's market and you probably imagine yourself strolling leisurely through colorful stalls, stopping to admire fresh-cut flowers and chatting with a farmer about his beautiful tomatoes. The sky is bright blue and you've got a fresh cup of coffee-and all day to poke around and enjoy yourself.

Sadly, that pretty picture is not what the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City really looks like on a Wednesday afternoon. I love the market, but have to admit that I sometimes find the experience daunting-no, make that annoying. Last week, the market was packed (great for the farmers-not so good for those of us with a baby in tow), and it's New York, so everyone was moving fast. I'd already been running errands and Sebastian's stroller was crammed with stuff. My wallet was buried under a new vacuum cleaner head, and I figured the best thing to do would be give up and go home.

Then I looked at the beautiful apricots, plums and cherries for sale and realized it was clafouti time-and that simply can't be missed.

A clafouti is a rustic French tart of fruit baked in a batter. It's custard really, but it has the consistency of a pancake and is ridiculously easy to make. Even novice bakers are assured of turning out something that looks like it belongs on a Martha Stewart Living magazine cover.

For the most part, I'm not much of a baker. I enjoy the process but don't like having a whole pie or 36 cookies staring at me-begging to be eaten, in one sitting, at midnight. The nice thing about clafouti is that it's really just baked fruit with a bit of cake around it, and who says you can't eat fruit at midnight?

While most desserts have exacting requirements-pan size, ingredient amounts, baking temperature-there is a lot of room for variation when baking a clafouti. You can bake it in almost any shallow container, a tart pan, ceramic pie dish, quiche pan or glass baking dish. The batter can be thick or thin, with more egg or less depending on whether you like it more custard-y or more pancake-y. And you can use any stone fruit that suits your fancy.

So get to the market, pick up whatever's looking good and try this at home:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 9-inch ceramic tart pan and arrange about three cups of fruit in the bottom and set aside. (Cherries can be pitted but left whole. Larger fruit should be cut in half.)

The batter is put together just like pancake batter. Combine 3/4 cup white, whole-wheat or all-purpose flour; 1/3 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar (depending on your sweet tooth); and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk together: three eggs, 1-1/2 cups milk and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.

Pour the batter over the fruit and bake for 30 to 45 minutes until the clafouti has souffléed slightly and is lightly browned on the top. When it comes out of the oven, let it hangout and cool down for 15 minutes or so. Then sprinkle it with powdered sugar just before serving. You might want to add a dollop of vanilla yogurt.

It will be so good, there probably won't be any left around at midnight.