If you mix plenty of pitted black cherries into what may be best described as a slightly thick crepe batter, you will have the makings of clafoutis Limousin, a type of cake from rural southern central France that takes its name from clafir, a dialect word meaning "to fill."
And fill it does—not least because it's so good that one's tendency is to ask for seconds and thirds.
The perfect cherry clafoutis.
(Serves 6)
500g fresh cherries
75g caster sugar
3 tbsp kirsch or other brandy
20g butter, melted, plus extra to grease
2 tbsp demerara sugar
50g plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten
270ml whole milk (1 ml = 1 g)
3 drops of almond essence (optional)
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
Wash the cherries (500g) and remove the stalks.
Put in a bowl and lightly crush, so the skins pop but the fruit retains its shape.
Add 2 tbsp caster sugar and the kirsch, toss together, cover and leave to macerate for two hours.
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 6.
Grease a baking dish just wide enough to hold the cherries in one layer, and add half (1 tbsp) the demerara sugar.
Spin the dish round to coat the inside with demerara, then set aside.
Sift the flour (50g) into a mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt and the remaining caster sugar (75g minus 2 tbsp=50g).
Whisk in the eggs (2 eggs), followed by the milk (270ml) and melted butter (20g), until you have a smooth batter.
Stir in the almond essence - 3 drops, if using, and the lemon zest - ½ lemon, then tip in the cherries and their juices.
Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake (180C) for about half an hour, until just set but still a bit wobbly.
Sprinkle with the remaining demerara sugar (1 tbsp) and serve warm, rather than hot.
- by Raymond Blanc's clafoutis recipe - Telegraph
"In a small saucepan heat the butter until it reaches a golden hazelnut colour and leave to cool." - Blanc macerates the fruit in kirsch (morello cherry brandy) and sugar for two hours before cooking. Blanc uses a mixture of milk and whipping cream.
- by Julia Childs Cherry Clafouti Recipe - Food.com
"Place dish into the oven for about 7-10 minutes, until a film of batter sets in the pan but the mixture is not baked through.
Remove from oven (but don’t turn the oven off, yet)." - Child, puzzlingly, calls for me to stick all the ingredients in a liquidiser and whiz them together. She also bakes the base of the clafoutis before arranging the cherries on top and pouring over the rest of the batter around them.
- by Alain and Michel Roux Cherry clafoutis: Recipes: Good Food Channel
"Scatter 20g butter pieces evenly over the top of the clafoutis and bake for another 5 minutes until set." - Roux Jr beats together butter and sugar, before folding in eggs, flour and ground almonds much in the manner of any other cake, but everyone else stirs together wet and dry ingredients to make a thinnish, pourable batter.
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