The natives were restless. Six friends were crowded around my table, finishing their roast chicken and bread salad, and I realized I had neglected to make dessert.

I ran through the ingredients I had in the kitchen. Eggs and milk, of course, and a couple of boxes of berries. Flour and sugar, too. There wasn’t enough time to bake a cake, and a crumble didn’t seem fancy enough.

Of course, I thought. Clafoutis.

I threw eggs, flour, sugar, milk, and vanilla in the blender and whirred. The batter went into a baking dish with the berries. I was ready to put dessert in the oven before it had even heated up. About a half hour later, while my guests were still drinking the dregs of their wine, I proudly brought a puffed custardy cake, studded with berries and dusted with powdered sugar, to the table.

“Larousse Gastronomique” defines clafoutis as a “dessert from the Limousin region of France, consisting of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with fairly thick batter.” But I think of it more like an idiot-proof souffle – puffed and eggy and warm – that’s perfect for last-minute entertaining. It’s quicker than a quick bread but fancier than a bowl of fruit.

And speaking of fruit, there’s no reason to stick with just cherries. Clafoutis batter works with any number of fruits available year-round. Hard fruits like apples and pears should be poached until tender before putting them in clafoutis, while soft fruit like berries and cherries can go in raw. Almost like a baked creme anglaise, the vanilla-scented egginess of the clafoutis batter wraps the fruit in a velvet glove, showing off its flavor without the interference of spices or chocolate.

The most beloved, traditional version of clafoutis features unpitted cherries, since the French hardly mind surreptitiously spitting out cherry pits from their clafoutis. Americans usually prefer to halve or pit them, but then they miss out on the delicate amaretto-ish flavor that the kernels lend to the dessert. In fact, according to James Peterson’s “Glorious French Food,” some French cooks add ground almonds to the clafoutis batter and bake it in a tart shell to make a tarte bourdaloue.

Other raw fruits can also be used in clafoutis, but they should be chosen with loving care. Watery fruits like strawberries, peaches, or nectarines can result, as Mr. Peterson points out, in a little puddle of liquid that surrounds each piece of fruit when the clafoutis emerges from the oven. Precooking watery these fruits does little to help them, since their texture becomes mushy and much of their flavor is lost. Instead, stick to fruits like blackberries and raspberries if you’re looking for a quick clafoutis that doesn’t require pre-cooking.

Another way to get fruit that’s flavorful instead of pallid is to turn to the dried variety. One of the best clafoutis variations features prunes soaked in Armagnac. Dried apricots that have been macerated in Grand Marnier or Cointreau would be equally delicious.

Clafoutis may be easier to make than souffle, but its joys are just as fleeting. And like its more demanding cousin, it’s rare to see clafoutis in pastry shops, since the dessert is at its best just 10 or 15 minutes out of the oven. Once it becomes cooler than lukewarm, its simple charms deflate as quickly as its height. The texture becomes rather rubbery and cakelike rather than ethereal, and the unique fragrance fades.

So there’s really no better time to make a clafoutis than after dinner, off the cuff. Your guests will ooh and ahh, and you’ll breathe a sigh of relief.

Raspberry Clafoutis

In the spring, before cherries have hit the market, I like to make clafoutis with raspberries.

1 tablespoon unsalted butter 6 large eggs 6 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 1 /4 cups whole milk 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon kirsch (cherry liqueur, optional) Pinch of salt 3 /4 cup flour 2 1 /2 -pint packages raspberries or blackberries Confectioners’ sugar, to serve 1 Preheat the oven to 425-F. Use the tablespoon of butter to grease a 9-inch baking dish. Combine the eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, kirsch (if using), and salt in a blender and blend for a few seconds, until just combined. Add the flour and blend for about a minute, until smooth. 2 Pour the clafoutis batter into the buttered pan, and spread the berries evenly over the batter. Bake for 30 minutes, or the clafoutis is puffed and golden-brown, and a skewer or toothpick inserted into it comes out clean. 3 Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve.