clafoutis with cherries

My teen heads back to school in a few days which means it is the end of my summer break too.  As I was getting my mind into the back-to-school-routine mode, it occurred to me that this is the first summer in the longest time where I have not traveled at all.  Not a single plane, train or bus ride…..and that made me just a tad bit grumpy!  Because while I like being a homebody with a set routine during the school year, come summer break, I am stricken by wanderlust and look forward to the frenzy of planning, last minute cleaning and then packing to head off to some distant land. Although I tried to live vicariously through the travelogues of friends and family from this summer, it was no help.  So I did the next best thing and opened the travel folder in my computer to look at pictures from the past.

Working my way from the back, I started with the last trip from summer last year which was to Dijon and a drive through the wine country surrounding it – Route des Grande Crus.  It took us through the stunning countryside with wildflowers and vineyards and the occasional wrong turn that led us right through the heart of some the vineyards with jawdropping vistas.  Here are just a few of my favorites since I still have to organize and process most of them (I know…a year later!)

One of the highlights of that trip was the B&B we stayed at, in a little village on the outskirts of Dijon.  At breakfast, each of the guests were assigned a place at the long communal table with every plate having a different vintage napkin ring.  So every morning, we sat at the spot where the plate held our napkin ring.  And breakfast was an event! A different cake showing up at the table every morning which we did full justice to!  The first day was a clafoutis like no other.  I have had clafoutis in the past and they were all very good but this one was something else.  More dense and cake-like than custard like, it was so delicious that we went for seconds and had every chair at the long table not been occupied, would have gone for thirds too!  On our last day, I had a surprise waiting for me.  Rolled up in my napkin ring, was the recipe for “Clafoutis aux fruits de Sophie” which the owner had so thoughtfully written down for me while explaining that Sophie was the author of the cookbook where the recipe was from.

Whenever I saw fresh cherries in the store, the clafoutis floated through my mind but it took me a whole year to actually get around to making it.  I made some substitutions with the flour, amount of sugar and butter but I also have the original recipe below with a note of the substitutions on the side.  My son did remark after tasting it that “The one that C. made was sweeter”  but I figured that since I was making it for breakfast, it seemed natural to use less sugar.  In all honesty, my version is very good and I can eat it for breakfast without guilt…….but it isn’t quite as amazing as the one we had in Dijon.  So I am giving you both the versions and you can decide which one you want to follow 🙂 Also, the recipe says “Clafoutis aux Fruits” but C. made it with cherries and also wrote a special note at the bottom that the cherries should be “avec les noyaux” so I left them whole, with pits.  You can certainly use pitted cherries if you like.

1 kg fresh cherries (I used 3 cups)

70 gms flour (I used 1/4 cup all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup almond flour)
40 gms melted butter (I used 2 tbsp) + some butter to grease pan

120g sugar (I used a 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp of raw sugar)

a pinch of salt
3 large eggs

250 ml milk (I used 1 cup of whole milk)

2 tbsp sliced almonds

1 tsp vanilla extract (Her note says a little vanilla essence or a vanilla sugar or vanilla powder)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C.  Butter a pan that has a 1L or 4 cups capacity and sprinkle a tbsp of raw sugar.  Arrange the cherries to cover the bottom.

Mix the milk, eggs, melted butter, vanilla and sugar in a bowl with a whisk.  Add the flour and make a very thin batter

Pour the batter over the cherries and sprinkle the sliced almonds.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-50 mins until the top turns brown.  The center will jiggle very slightly when you take it out of the oven but it will firm up upon cooling.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

* Make sure the eggs and milk are at room temperature so that the melted butter blends in well into the batter.