A clafoutis is nothing new or especially fancy, but boy is it wonderful. So, when it’s cherry season, you make clafoutis – that classic French dessert made with cherries topped with a custard-like topping.
I used Chef Jean-Pierre Brehier’s recipe, mostly because it gave me the excuse to watch the video of him making it on his YouTube channel. You can watch the video
here.
He just makes me laugh.
Chef JP refers to a clafoutis as a custard pie, which is a good description. It’s not a cake, so if you’ve never made traditional clafoutis, it’s worth doing so. It’s also super easy, otherwise I wouldn’t be making it!
Instead of a 9″ round glass or ceramic baking dish, I used an 8 x 8″ dish. I seriously couldn’t believe that I don’t own a 9″ round. I own just about every other size and shape! It never ends!
The recipe calls for sweet black cherries, which I don’t get where I live. But the regular cherries worked perfectly well, just make sure they’re ripe and good!
Chef Jean-Pierre’s Cherry Clafoutis
1 cup flour
1 ¼ cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
1 cup ½ & ½
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Non-stick baking spray
3 cups sweet black cherries, pitted
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
Preheat oven to 275°.
In a blender, combine the flour, sugar, salt, eggs, milk, cream and vanilla. Blend thoroughly, but don’t overblend.
Generously spray the bottom of a 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish with a non-stick spray. Spread the cherries evenly on the bottom of the baking dish. Pour the batter slowly over the berries.
Set the baking dish inside a large lasagna style pan, add hot water to ¾” from top rim, creating a hot water bath.
Bake for 1 ½ hours or until the tip of a small knife inserted in the center of the custard comes out clean. I lowered the temperature to 250 and cooked the clafoutis for 20 more minutes before my cake tester came out clean.
Take out of Bain Marie and let rest at room temperature for at least 2 hours and refrigerate at least 4 to 5 hours or better yet overnight.
Set the cold Clafoutis again in a baking dish or a large lasagna style pan, add hot water to ¾” from top rim creating another hot water bath. This will help releasing the custard and invert the pie on a cold plate. (I didn’t want to ruin the top of the clafoutis so I just sliced and served from the baking dish.)
Serve cold or at room temperature and sprinkle powdered sugar in the top. I sliced the clafoutis while chilled, and surprisingly really enjoyed it chilled!
To pit cherries, there’s a little gadget that also removes the pits from olives; it’s quite handy.
