Step #1 1 Preheat the oven (gas mark 6 / 400F / 200C).
Step #2 Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar & salt.
Step #3 Sieve the flour & add slowly, stirring well.
Step #4 2 Melt half of the butter & add to the mixture, followed by the milk.
Step #5 3 Grease an ovenproof dish with butter & pour in the mixture.
Step #6 4 Wash the figs, cut them in half & arrange them on top of the mixture.
Step #7 Put a few knobs of butter on top, Sprinkle top the vanilla sugar over, & bake for 40 mins.
Step #8 The Academie Française had already defined the word "clafoutis" as "a sort of flan with fruit", a word from the dialect of the Centre of France, when it had to give way to protests from the people of Limousin that it came from "clafir", meaning "to fill".