Clafouti is a rich, French dessert made with fresh fruit and a light batter. It's baked until the top forms a fluffy, golden crust. Cherries are some of the most common fruits used in a clafouti, but other fruits, such as apricots, blueberries, plums, and peaches, can be incorporated as well. Select a porcelain or other decorative stoneware baking dish to bake the clafouti.
The recipe below uses basic ingredients, which makes this an ideal dessert to pull together during the height of cherry season. Fresh cherries are usually available at the farmers' markets from mid-June to early July. Upon purchasing them, they generally last about a week. Store them in the coldest part of the refrigerator in an airtight container. Since cherries absorb water, only wash them if you're planning to eat them or use them. If you wash them in advance, they tend to soften and lose their texture. Although you can pit fresh cherries by hand, a cherry pitter works exceptionally well, especially if you're planning to pit a quantity of cherries at one time.
RECIPE
Cherry Clafouti
Serves 8
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 pound cherries, pitted
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
- Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper and set aside. Butter a 10-inch porcelain tart dish, and place the cherries in the bottom of the dish. Set aside.
- Sift together the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar. Whisk in the eggs, egg yolks, milk and heavy cream. Split the vanilla bean in half with a sharp knife. Gently scrape the seeds out of the pod with the tip of a sharp paring knife. Add the scraped seeds and the almond extract to the bowl, and whisk to combine.
- Pour the batter mixture through a sieve over the cherries in the tart dish. Transfer the dish to the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until the clafouti is puffed and golden brown, about 1 hour. Let the clafouti cool until it is warm to the touch (it will sink slightly in the tart dish, but this is fine). Dust the cooled clafouti with confectioners' sugar and serve while still warm.
Kitchen Tip:Placing the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper will save you hours of oven clean-up. The juices from the baking cherries tend to bubble up and over the sides of the tart pan; the parchment-lined baking sheet will help prevent those juices from leaking through the racks of your oven.
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