Cherry Clafoutis

After making two successful mouthwatering desserts from The Food Of France Cook Book - Caramel Ice Cream and Petits Pots de Crème -, I was dying to get my hands on another good one from the same cook book.

I set my eyes on Cherry Clafoutis. Cherries are available in abundance on the supermarket shelves at the moment. I grabbed a good kilo of them today and couldn't wait to get on with them.

I was tossing up between choosing the cherry clafoutis recipe from The Food of France Cook Book and Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cook Book.

After the stunning Poulet Roti (French Style Roast Chicken with Herb Butter, I wanted to make a French dessert from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cook Book. But after hearing lukewarm feedback from leshallescooking.com on the runny Creme Brulee and the chewy Cherry Clafoutis comment during one of the MasterChef chat hosted by chocolatesuze, I decided to use the recipe from The Food of France Cook Book.

The cherry clafoutis (pronounced as 'KLA-FOO-TEE') turned out to be SO GOOD!!! The colour, the texture, the ratio between the batter and cherries ticked all the right boxes. Mr J polished off a portion that is big enough for three-people and clutched his aching stomach to bed.

It is very important to take note that it is traditional to leave the pits in the cherries when you make a clafoutis. They add a bitter, almost almond-like, flavour during the cooking which makes this dessert so unique. But you'd better point this out when you're serving the dessert.

Cherry Clafoutis Recipe
(Adapted from The Food From France Cook Book)
Serves 6

200 ml double cream
1 vanilla pod
100 ml milk
3 eggs
50 g caster sugar
70 g plain flour
1 tbsp kirsch
450 g black cherries
icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
2. Put the cream in a small saucepan.
3. Split the vanilla pod in two, scrape out the seeds and add the whole lot to the cream.
4. Heat gently for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat, add the milk and cool.
5. Strain to remove the vanilla pod.
6. Whisk the eggs with the sugar and flour, then stir into the cream.
7. Add the kirsch and cherries and stir well.
8. Pour into a 23 cm round baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden on top.
9. Dust with icing sugar and serve.