Soaking up the last few days of summer cherry season with this cherry clafoutis, a French dessert classic.

Fresh summer cherries remind me of my childhood. Growing up, the neighbor across the street had cherry trees in her backyard and my sister and I would sneak over and pick handfuls to eat. I say sneak, but she didn’t mind us enjoying the fresh cherries from her tree. Cherries are such a seasonal fruit. These days you can almost get any fruit any time of year, but not cherries. They’re pretty perishable and you just don’t find them year round like you do other fruits.

I’d never actually heard of a clafoutis dessert until reading up on Julia Childs. Her famed cherry clafoutis dessert caught my eye and I was instantly intrigued. Clafoutis is a baked French dessert, that’s then covered with a custard or flan-like batter. By outward appearances and name alone, it seems like such an elegant dessert. The more I researched this dish the more I realized how simple, yet elegant, it really was. Clafoutis typically uses cherries, however, you can use other fruits as well. You’ll start by greasing a pie plate and dusting it with sugar. Then, you’ll line the pie plate with pitted, fresh cherries.

The next step is to mix together the clafoutis batter and then pour over the cherries. Now, I’m not one to be super detailed with my baking steps. Sometimes I don’t mix my dry ingredients, sometimes I don’t let my eggs get to room temperature, but with this batter, I learned that you need to be very specific in the way you mix the dry and wet ingredients. So, pay attention when you jump down the recipe on the detailed mixing instructions.

The end result is a delicious sweet custard that engulfs the fresh cherries. I also added on some homemade whipped cream with pure almond extract, which makes the cherry flavor explode! During my research of clafoutis, I read that traditional French cherry clafoutis actually leaves the pits inside the cherries. The reasoning behind this is because the pits of the cherries emit a sort of almond-like flavor when baked, mimicking almond extract. However, I opted to pit my cherries and bring in almond extract into the homemade whipped cream.

The tagline for Wanderlust and Wellness is simple yet elegant eats for the home cook, and this cherry clafoutis is a perfect representation of a simple yet elegant eat!

Cherry Clafoutis Recipe:

5 from 1 vote

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Cherry Clafoutis

Enjoy summer cherry season with this classic French dessert, a cherry clafoutis. #dessert #cherry #clafoutis #Frenchcuisine

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Keyword cherry, clafoutis

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 8

Author Jennifer

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh sweet dark cherries
• 3 tbsp sugar - divided for pie plate and garnishing
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp sea salt

Homemade Whipped Cream

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 tsp pure almond extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Generously grease a 9 in. pie plate. Sprinkle the bottom with 2 tbsp. of sugar. 

3. Pit the fresh cherries and line the bottom of the pie plate with the pitted cherries. 

4. In a mixing bowl, add the two eggs and one egg yolk and whisk. 

5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt and using your hand, mix to combine. 

6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, heavy cream, and vanilla. 

7. Starting with the dry ingredients, add about 1/3 of the mixture to the whisked eggs and whisk to combine. Then, add half of the milk mixture, whisking to combine. Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients and whisk. Add the remaining milk mixture and whisk. End with the last portion of the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. By doing this you shouldn't have any clumps of dry ingredients within your mixture and you should have a smooth batter. 

8. Pour the batter over the cherries. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp. of sugar and place in the oven to bake for 45 minutes. 

9. While the cherry clafoutis is baking, mix the homemade whipped cream. In a small bowl, add the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and almond extract. Mix on low with a hand mixer until the cream becomes stiff and resembles whipped cream. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. 

10. At the 45 minute mark, test the center of the clafoutis with a knife to ensure it's done, with the knife coming out clean. If not, continue baking in 5 min. increments until the knife comes out clean from the center. 

11. When done, remove the pie plate from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool. Cool for at least 15 minutes. Serve warm with the homemade whipped cream. 

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