Clafouti
Posted on March 5, 2010 by Leslie Blythe No comments
Clafouti, that’s easy for you to say!
I am catering an Oscar party on Sunday and my client wants Beef Bourguignonn, everything by Julia Child. I decided to make a clafouti for dessert.
Clafouti, is a baked French dessert of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan like batter. The clafouti is dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm.
The clafouti comes from the Limousin region of France and while black cherries are the traditional there are numerous variations using other fruits including red cherries, plums, prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries. When other kinds of fruit are used instead of cherries, the dish is called a flaugnarde.
Clafouti
Serves 6 – 8
3 cups pitted black cherries
1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
Powdered sugar in a shaker
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use fresh, black, sweet cherries in season. Otherwise use drained, canned, pitted Bing cherries, or frozen sweet cherries, thawed and drained.
Place the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, and flour in your blender jar in the order in which they are listed. Cover and blend at top speed for 1 minute.
Pour a 1/4-inch layer of batter in a 7- to 8-cup buttered, fireproof baking dish or pyrex pie plate about 1 1/2 inches deep. Set over moderate heat for a minute or two until a film of batter has set in the bottom of the dish. Remove from the heat. Spread the cherries over the batter and sprinkle on the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. Pour on the rest of the batter and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
Place in middle position of preheated oven and bake for about an hour. The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned, and a needle or knife plunged into its center comes out clean. Sprinkle top of clafouti with powdered sugar just before bringing it to the table. (The clafouti need not be served hot, but should still be warm. It will sink down slightly as it cools.)
