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Weekend in a French Kitchen: Cherry Clafoutis

I cannot tell a lie. Well, of course I can and often do so when the occasion demands. But in this case I am discussing cherries, which makes me think of George Washington, which makes me think of his alleged aversion to prevarication. So I will fess up and say that the subject of this blog, Cherry Clafoutis, has been previously covered in a 2013 blog My Cherry Amour.

Pitted Cherries for Cherry Clafoutis
Pitted Cherries for Cherry Clafoutis

On the theory few of you read the prior blog, for expediency I was going to incorporate many of its pithy and verily humorous comments into this blog. After all, as Frasier said: “Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.” But rather than accept my shortcomings and be accused of dubious character, I checked with Sous Chef the attorney. While he did not think one could plagiarize oneself, he thought it artless to engage in wholesale repetition. So here is a semi-fresh look at that delightful dessert invention, Cherry Clafoutis.

Cherry Clafoutis
Baked Cherry Clafoutis – notice how much the custard filling rises

Last time I created my own recipe—oops, I mean last time I created a recipe that was based on other recipes. For this week’s Sunday edition of Weekend in a French Kitchen, the Cherry Clafoutis recipe is courtesy of Mimi Thorisson’s A Year in a Kitchen in France. Her recipe is simpler than mine, uses regular flour instead of almond flour, and skips the hazelnuts, cheese, and sour cream. But cherries are the star of this dish and the other items I included are merely a supporting cast. At day’s end, Mimi’s Cherry Clafoutis is lusciously light and, just like in my dish, the cherries provide notes of tangy sweet–sourness and hints of tobacco and tannic tea. Unless you want to bankrupt the tooth fairy, use pitted cherries. The French leave the pits in so the batter does not get stained! But better some juice stains than blood stains I always say. However, through some molecular reaction I could not possibly understand, baked cherry pits emit a highly popular flavor that is purportedly second only to vanilla within the United States flavor and fragrance industry. To avoid this “pitfall,” just add a splash of almond extract.

Sunken Cherry Clafoutis
What goes up, must come down – the laws of gravity at work apply to Cherry Clafoutis

See what the rest of the Weekend in a French Kitchen group has to say about Mimi’s dish. If you like our concept and enthusiasm for French cooking, why don’t you join our group?

Aurevoir and Bon Appetit until next week!

Cherry Clafoutis
Cherry Clafoutis

5.0 from 4 reviews
Cherry Clafoutis
 
This recipe along with a recipe for Duck Burgers can be found at http://mimithorisson.com/2013/07/16/duck-burger-cherry-clafoutis/
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Ingredients
  • 500 g/ 1 pound cherries
  • 4 eggs
  • 50 g/ 3 & ½ tbsp salted butter, melted and extra for lining the cake pan (you can use plain butter if you prefer)
  • 200 ml/ 0.8 cup full milk
  • 100 g/ ¾ cup + 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 60 g/ ⅓ cup plain sugar
  • 1 packet of vanilla sugar (7.5 g/ 1½ tsp)
  • 1 tbsp orange blossom water
  • Icing sugar, for dusting
  • A pinch of salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven 200°C/ 400 F
  2. Butter (generously) a cake pan.
  3. Rinse cherries and pat them dry. I leave the stones but you can remove them if you prefer)
  4. Place them in the bottom of the cake pan.
  5. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and vanilla sugar. Add milk and eggs (one by one), whisking gently. Add orange blossom water and butter, mix until you get a smooth batter.
  6. Pour batter on top of cherries.
  7. Bake for 15 minutes at 200°C/ 400 F, then lower heat to 180°C/ 350 F and cook for a further 30 minutes. Leave to cool and set (the clafoutis will be all puffed up and set evenly).
  8. Sprinkle icing sugar and serve immediately

 

WRITTEN BY

Christy Majors

Food enthusiast, wine aficionado, BBC Food fanatic, and cookbook bibliomaniac, who suffers from an incurable case of culinary wanderlust. Creator of Culinary Diva (TM) where experiences in food, travel and wine are broken down for the home cook and traveler. Banker by day.
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15 Comments

  1. Great pics. Yes, it was not only enjoyed at our house for a dessert….but everyone did plan ahead to be sure there was enough to have for breakfast.

  2. Great post and photo of the clafoutis. I don’t know what a dutch baby is so I guess I need to research that as the comparison has been made more than once. 🙂 Your attorney is your sous chef? My attorney is in no way qualified to even lift a knife in our kitchen, and after 37 years of marriage, I don’t see that happening soon. 🙂 Maybe when he retires! I won’t hold my breath. It’s cute that yours is good help!

  3. This looks delicious. I have just finished picking, pitting and freezing bag after bag of cherries from our tree and think this would be a terrific way to use some of them. Thanks for the idea.

  4. Your Cherry Clafoutis looks beautiful. I, personally, have not done any French baking but I have tasted several French desserts. I appreciate your recipe as well as the photos. When I try new recipes, I appreciate seeing what the end result should look like. Thank you.

  5. Did you not make the cherry claf. in AMFT? 🙂 I love this one and know that you are a fan 😉 Looks great – I love the shot of the entire “pie” !

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