Clafoutis is the flan of France, basically. I’m on some kind of French dessert kick lately (though I guess I’m always, to some extent, on a French dessert kick) and I just happened to have handpicked cherries in the freezer, so it’s only natural that I toss a good heap of them into some batter and make a morning of it.
Clafoutis is all custardy and egg-like, certainly, but–and here’s why I love it–unlike flan, it is usually loaded with fruit. I’ve made a few clafoutis now (I once made one with strawberries that got the approval of a French girl, which is maybe saying something), but if you’re going for tradition, you’ve got to use cherries.
Thankfully, the French like to keep it simple and insist that the cherries remain unpitted. This is excellent, because I do not own a cherry pitter and I had already spent much of my time slicing and removing pits to make cherry jam. I was not in the mood for more. The reasoning, or so it goes, is that the pits impart a nice almond- flavor into the clafoutis, and I have to say, removing them with your teeth is well worth that slight amaretto after-taste.
CHERRY CLAFOUTIS
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups of cherries
powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cream the sugar and eggs until they turn lighter in color. Gradually add in the melted butter, beating to incorporate. Add the flour all at once and blend until the batter is a homogeneous mixture.
Slowly pour in the milk and vanilla, whisking to combine. The batter should be very smooth and shiny.
Place cherries (unpitted) in the bottom of a buttered pie dish. Pour the batter over the fruit and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until slightly browned and almost completely set in the middle. Top with powdered sugar and serve warm, at room temperature or cold.
