Cherry Clafoutis

Often times the recipes I choose to make are governed by the contents of our fridge and this sweet little pie was no exception. I realized today that we had a bag of cherries and a liter of heavy whipping cream sitting in the fridge and about to expire. Personally I hate wasting food and the thought of throwing away cherries, of all things, did not sit well with me. As I had already used cherries last week to bake my dark chocolate and roasted cherry brownies and I made some cherry hand pies, substituting a cherry filling for my recipe for peach strudel, I was looking for something new to try. Throughout the summer I kept seeing recipes pop up on tastespotting.com for cherry clafoutis, a simple French dessert originating from the Limousin region of France. It features cherries baked in a light custard-type batter and finished off with some powdered sugar.

The batter for the custard took no time at all to prepare and while it cooled on the counter I halved and pitted my cherries. Traditionally, the clafoutis is baked with whole cherries, pits included, to give it a depth of flavor. However most people, myself included, prefer to pit the cherries so that the pie is easy to eat. Since I don't own a cherry pitter I simply cut all the cherries in half and removed the pits by hand....tedious, yes, but definitely worth the ease of eating later.

I brought the clafoutis over to my aunt and uncle's house to share over some tea and because I had just baked it prior to coming over, it was still hot from the oven. My uncle pointed out that it would have tasted great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside it but I didn't mind the pure cherry flavor. It wasn't as sweet as I had expected it to be, but that could be due to the fact that we ran out of white sugar and instead I used organic raw cane sugar. I haven't quite decided how I feel about this different sugar since it seems to come out differently in my baking. However it smells very pleasant and provides more of a crunch when sprinkled over food, as opposed to the more refined white sugar. Still, since I don't like to waste food and we have so much of it I will continue to use it and see how more of my baking turns out.

Cherry Clafoutis

• 2 cups cherries, pitted
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar + 1 tbsp
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup heavy cream or milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. In a small sauce pan, combine the cream or milk and vanilla. Heat until just warm and little bubbles start to appear. Set aside.
2. Whisk together the eggs and the half cup of sugar. Add in the flour and salt and whisk to combine.
3. Slowly whisk in the warmed cream until completely incorporated and the batter thins out. Set aside the batter for 30 minutes at room temperature.
4. Combine the cherries with the tablespoon of sugar and mix well so that the cherries are completely covered. Pour the cherries into a pre-greased 9" or 10" pie plate and then pour the batter over top.
5. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 40-45 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the middle puffs up.
6. Allow the pie to cool for about 10 minutes then sift some powdered sugar over top and enjoy. Note: The middle will sink once it cools down a little.