Plum Flaugnarde

Adapted from The French Menu Cookbook by Richard Olney If you want to leave the kirsch out, I've offered a few substitutions. If you want to make it without the alcohol, add a dash of pure almond extract along with the vanilla extract. For those on gluten-free diets, although I haven't tried it, it's likely one of the gluten-free flour mixes would work well for this. This is usually made with whole milk but I like the touch of richness that heavy cream provides, which also makes the texture a little silkier. But you can use 1 cup (250ml) of whole milk in the place of the 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Feel free swap out other fruits or berries for the plums, such as blackberries, raspberries, cherries, apricots, nectarines, or a mix of fruit and berries. I'd avoid using anything too juicy, like peaches. Pears are classic, and in his book, Richard Olney uses prunes (which he says, with classic Olney panache, should be "of the year's production, if possible") and raisins soaked in Cognac.