Instructions: 1 Preheat the oven (gas mark 6 / 400F / 200C). Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar and salt. Sieve the flour and add gradually, stirring well.

2 Melt half of the butter and add to the mixture, followed by the milk.

3 Grease an ovenproof dish with butter and pour in the mixture.

4 Wash the figs, cut them in half and arrange them on top of the mixture. Put a few knobs of butter on top, sprinkle the vanilla sugar over, and bake for 40 minutes.

The Academie Française had already defined the word

"clafoutis" as "a sort of flan with fruit", when it had to give way to protests from the people of Limousin that it came from "clafir", a word from the dialect of the Centre of France, meaning "to fill".

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