Baking for Beginners: Gluten-free Rhubarb Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a sweet egg custard, studded with fruit and baked until set. It's the perfect recipe for adapting for gluten-free diets as it uses very little flour - all the structure comes from the eggs. And despite sounding fancy, it's very easy to make and can look beautiful if you arrange your fruit in a pretty pattern and dust it with icing sugar.

And I admit, technically this isn't actually a clafoutis, because a classic clafoutis is made with cherries. But it's spring and the supermarkets are full of gorgeous pink forced rhubarb just begging to be baked into a tasty pud. Because this is made with a different sort of fruit, it should really be called gluten-free rhubarb flaugnarde. But no-one could possibly pronounce that. Plus gluten-free clafoutis rhymes, so I'm sticking with it!

Gluten-free Rhubarb Clafoutis (serves 6)

You'll need:

• 400g fresh rhubarb, cut into bite sized pieces
• Ground cinnamon
• Zest and juice of an orange
• 125g + 2tbsp caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 20g gluten-free plain flour (I like Doves blend) or use ordinary plain flour if you don't need it to be gluten-free
• Pinch of salt
• 250ml milk 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Make it!

• Preheat the oven to 180c
• Toss the rhubarb with the orange juice, a sprinkle of cinnamon and 2 tbsp sugar in a baking dish.
• Pop into the oven for 10-15 mins until the rhubarb is soft but still holds its shape.
• Meanwhile, butter a 23cm round dish or tin. I used a springform cake tin for easy access later.
• Whisk together the eggs and sugar.
• Whisk the flour, salt and another sprinkle of cinnamon into the egg mixture.
• Now whisk in the milk, orange zest and vanilla essence. The batter will be quite runny.
• Drain the cooked rhubarb and arrange artfully in the buttered dish. 
• Pour the batter over the rhubarb and pop into the oven for around 50 minutes or until set.
• Serve warm