This is one of my favorite summer desserts –both to eat and to make. I like to eat this rustic French dessert (pronounced “clafoutee”) because it elegantly features the flavor of ripe summer fruit. And I like to make it because it comes together in just a few minutes from simple ingredients –you can mix up the batter and put the dish in the oven just before you sit down to dinner, and when you’re finished, a warm, fragrant dessert is waiting for you.
The finished dessert is wonderful in its simplicity. A baked custard –crisp and golden on the outside and creamy on the inside– cradles nuggets of still-warm baked fresh fruit. What could be better? This recipe uses cherries, but any soft ripe fruit –raspberries, bite-sized pieces of stone fruit, blueberries –make a delicious clafoutis.
Here’s a quick how-to video. The recipe follows below.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
1/4 (60ml) cup heavy cream
3 eggs
1/2 cup (120ml) all-purpose flour
scant 2/3 cup (155ml) sugar
2 pinches of table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
finely grated zest of half a lemon (optional)
18-24 fresh cherries
butter (for the baking dish)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C).
2. Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 2 quart baking dish.
3. Put all of the remaining ingredients (except the cherries) into a blender and blitz until well blended and frothy (or beat well by hand with a whisk).
4. Pour the batter into the baking dish, and drop in the cherries, about an inch apart from each other. (You can pit them, of course, but I just warn my guests about the pits instead.)
5. Carefully transfer to the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling.
6. Cool for at least 10 minutes and serve warm.
