 | |||
Aw, get your minds out of the gutter, would ya? I'm not being dirty. It's all good clean fun. See, summer has hit the South of France. Which means certain fruits are in season. And when you have a tree in your backyard that bears an abundance of juicy mouth watering gifts it also means it's CLAFOUTIS (pronounced cla-foo-tee) TIME. Which shouldn't be confused with hammer time - although after eating too much clafoutis you just might need your baggy pants and some of MC Hammer's moves...
CLAFOUTIS is a French dessert typically made from black cherries, but, really you can use any variety, save for maraschinos. We're talking fresh here. Speaking of fresh, this year our cherry tree went full on crazy, yielding more cherries than I've ever seen outside of a grocery store or the market. So after we collected our bounty, and after I delivered sacks overflowing with cherries to our neighbors, the hubs and I decided to make a clafoutis.
 |
| Here's the first of many clafoutis. Make yours prettier! We ran out, but you can sprinkle powered sugar on the top. |
Today, I'm going to share the frog's recipe with you. And if you're so inspired to make one, I'd love to see yours. Hey, I showed you my clafoutis; it's only fair. I'm serious. Just post a picture on my Facebook page by clicking here.
Also, note this batter is the exact same one my frog uses for crêpes! So you're getting two recipes in one! For free! But wait there's more...
Here we go. And here's what you'll need:
cherries (one pound or more)*
4 eggs
1 tablespoon oil (sunflower or canola)
1.25 cups milk (room temperature)
2.5 tablespoons of melted butter (used to butter your baking dish)
teaspoon vanilla extract
1.25 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
optional
1/4 cup rum (yum, yum)
or
tablespoon fleur d'oranger
and
powdered sugar for decorating
and served with creme fraiche, yogurt, or whipped cream
*The frog says: DO NOT de-seed the cherries or they will turn watery and won't hold their form. Also, the seeds give the clafoutis a "nuttier" flavor. Don't argue with the frog! He's French. (But you can de-seed the cherries if you want to. Sssh! It'll be our secret.)
STEPS:
1) Pre-heat your oven to 375
2) Butter your baking dish. Fill the entire bottom of the dish with cherries.
3) Mix the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and milk together with a whisk.*
4) Mix the salt, cinnamon, and flour together, slowly adding and whisking it into the egg mixture until smooth.*
5) Add the rum. Whisk it. Whisk it good.*
6) Pour batter over the cherries.
7) Bake it. Bake it good for about 40-50 minutes.
*These are the steps for making the crêpe batter. To make crêpes, just heat up a pan, use a ladle to pour the batter into it, make sure it's evenly spread, cook until the edges are nice and brown, and repeat! You'll have a pile of crêpes in no time. Fill your crêpes with nutella and bananas, freshly squeezed juice from a lemon and sugar, fresh fruit, or what-evs!
When your clafoutis is puffed and brown, it's ready. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve warm, and enjoy!
Bon app!
Note: I'm following a regime. So after the first clafoutis, I had to decline the second and the third. So while the rest of the family enjoyed their clafoutis, I had a low-cal dessert. 2 teaspoons of brown sugar mixed into Greek yogurt with, you guessed it, a nice heaping serving of de-seeded fresh cherries! It's seriously delicious and perfect for those hot summer nights. Cherries! Nom, nom, nom.
