If you haven't tried French clafoutis yet, you're in for a treat. Clafoutis is a common French dessert spelled both clafoutis and clafouti, but pronounced Kla-FOO-tee. The texture of a clafoutis is a cake- like custard, commonly made with pears or cherries. Here's a simple recipe I learned in France that you can use with almost any fruit, such as rhubarb, blueberries, or a mixture of fruits.
1 pint of fresh cherries- with the pits removed. See notes below.
3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
3 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of homemade vanilla or good-quality vanilla
Optional - 2 tablespoons of confectioner sugar for dusting
3. Combine the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. In the middle, make a well and add the eggs. Whisk the flour mixture and eggs for about 1-2 minutes.
4. Add about 1/3 of the milk into the flour and egg mixture, and whisk until combined. Using this technique, the batter will be less likely to contain lumps.
5. Add the rest of the milk, cream, vanilla, or orange water, and whisk until well combined.
6. Remove the cherry pits and add the cherries to the baking dish. Pour the batter over the cherries. Push the cherries around to distribute them in the batter evenly.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until firm and golden on top. Do not over-bake, or else the clafouti will be too dry.
Traditionally, a clafouti is topped with a dusting of powdered sugar. Place 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar in a sieve and sift on top of the clafoutis to add the powdered sugar.
Serve the clafoutis warm or cold.
A cherry pitter is a useful tool to have to remove cherry pits and olive pits.
Clafoutis Variations