Clafoutis aux cerises

Yesterday morning on my walk with Callie the collie, I noticed a huge cherry tree that was heavy with big, red, sweet cherries (I tasted a few). I already knew the tree, which is on the edge of a vineyard parcel close to our house. I thought to myself that I ought to go back out there with a bag or basket later in the morning and pick some low-hanging fruit. Then it started raining.

Because it was raining, Walt decided not to go to the outdoor market in Saint-Aignan to get some local strawberries. Then the rain stopped, so off I went on foot with a plastic bag to get cherries. I picked a pound of them. There are still thousands of them on the tree, but most are so high up you'd need a ladder to get to them. Nobody else is picking any of the cherries, as far as I can tell.

So when nature gives you cherries, what do you do? You make a clafoutis [klah-foo-TEE]. It's one of the simplest and most delicious ways to eat them. You don't need to make or buy a crust. All you need is some eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and milk, to make a filling. You don't even need to pit the cherries, if you are just serving this to family or good friends (be sure to tell them that the cherries are unpitted!). Some people say leaving the pits in the cherries actually improves the taste of the clafoutis.

Above is the recipe in French. It comes from the book Cuisine pour toute l'année by Monique Maine, which was first published in the late 1960s and is a French kitchen standard. It's a paperback, and is also available as a Kindle e-book available on amazon.fr. I've translated and adapted the recipe below.

Clafoutis aux cerises

1 lb. cherries [500 g]
¾ cup flour [80 g]
⅔ cup sugar [125 g]
4 eggs
1 cup milk [250 ml]
¼ cup butter, melted [60 g]

Wash, de-stem, and (optionally) pit the cherries.

In a big bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and eggs. Pour in the milk a little at a time, stirring well, and then add the melted butter, to make a fairly liquid batter (consistency of heavy cream).

Butter a baking dish or pie plate and spread the cherries over the bottom. Pour in the batter. Bake the clafoutis for about 40 minutes at 350ºF (180ºC).

Optionally, you can sprinkle a little sugar over the top of the clafoutis to make a crunchy topping. As you can see by comparing the photos above, the clafoutis will collapse slightly as it cools. Serve warm or cold.