Right now is almost the perfect time for delicious, dark red and sweet cherries from the old country. The ideal time to sweeten a summer afternoon with a clafoutis. Because on the one hand it tastes fantastic, on the other hand a clafoutis succeeds even completely talentless bakers, like me. Somewhere between a casserole and a cake, the basic recipe, which primarily resembles a pancake batter, forgives many spontaneous variations and ideas.
Just the way I love it (and just the way all other cake recipes regularly miss, of course), I connected at least four recipes more or less, wildly combining ingredients, estimating quantities, and gauging baking time and temperature more by gut feeling. All no problem for a clafoutis. Quite the opposite.
Only good cherries should be on hand, as they are the essence of this classic, rustic French dessert. Directly around the cherries, however, there are then immediately diverse and highly contrary views: Process with stone or without stone? While the latter is of course much more tooth-friendly, the former, i.e. preparation with stone, is considered more aromatic. In addition, the stones can be easily squeezed out of the soft cherries with a fork. As long as there are no children at the table, I would always advise this option. Then you can also toss the cherries in a little (better: a lot) of cherry brandy, grate the zest of a lime over the fruit, and lightly press it in before baking so that it can release some of its juice in the oven.
The dough itself is made quickly. Whisk eggs and sugar, add flour, milk and half of the sugar and mix until smooth. To be on the safe side, I added melted and lightly browned butter and half a cup of creme fraiche to my dough, plus the pulp of a vanilla bean.
Put about a third of the dough in a baking dish in a 180 degree oven for about 8 minutes, then add the cherries and the other half of the sugar. Pour on the remaining batter and return to the oven for another 25 minutes. After all, you don’t want the cherries to sink into the bottom of the dough, but you want some of them to show on the surface.
The ingredients for a clafoutis
500gr cherries (with stones)
100gr flour
250ml milk
90gr sugar
4 eggs
20gr lightly browned butter
1 vanilla pod
a pinch of salt
2 limes
1 shot cherry brandy
1/2 cup créme fraiche
Typically, you would maybe serve some ice cream with it. I mixed some Greek yogurt with the rest of the créme fraiche instead, folded in a little (ideally homemade) vanilla sugar and the zest of another lime. Et voilá.
