I almost missed local cherry season this year. Not a really serious matter, since the grocery stores have plenty of cherries, but I’d have lost the opportunity for using local farm fruit to make what is, incontestably, the very best clafoutis recipe I’ve ever encountered. Sweet cherries had been in my Greenmarket for weeks, and I’d been comfortably intending to get some “soon” – until the other day, when I noticed that hardly any of the stands had any.
Quickly I bought some, having to pick over the supply carefully to avoid over- and under-ripe specimens, which were most of what was left. I didn’t need too many, fortunately, since my clafoutis would be a small dessert for a French-accented dinner party for four. Three-quarters of a pound did it.
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Now, for years and years I had been totally underwhelmed by clafoutis recipes. I’d tried many, from Julia Child and elsewhere, but they all came out tasting to me like breakfast pancakes with cherries. Which, in effect, they are. Nice enough, but not what I want as a dinner dessert. But then, last summer, a food blog that I like called French Letters had a post called “A Clafoutis to Remember.”
The author, Abra Bennet, was writing about a recipe she’d found on a French website that changed her whole perception of the dish. It did the same for mine.
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There’s only one trick, and it transforms the whole recipe. Instead of just pouring a sweet pancake batter over raw cherries in a pan and baking it, you first put those cherries – preferably unpitted – into a nonstick skillet with a bit of butter and sugar, and you sauté them gently until they’re caramelized. That’s it: That’s the magic.
Then you pour the batter over them and bake them in a moderate oven. You won’t believe what a difference it makes until you try it. It is simply fabulous, and it is definitely a dinner dessert.
For all its terrific flavor, however, this is not a glamorous dish. It’s very rustic, down-home looking. The batter is supposed to puff up in the oven; mine sometimes does and sometimes doesn’t very much. But it doesn’t matter to the taste. You can even bake this clafoutis in advance, let the puff deflate – which it will – and reheat it briefly in the oven just before serving.
Any defects of appearance can be concealed with a shaking of powdered sugar, if you feel the need. There are no defects of flavor. I’d made half a recipe for my foursome that evening, and they practically fought over who would get to scrape the empty pan. Next time, I’ll make the whole recipe. Never has a pancake been so appetizing.
Not the least attractive aspect of the French Letters blog is Ms. Bennett’s writing style. Here’s her final remark about the recipe (which she provides in full): “The squeamish may pit their cherries, but if you want the real deal, leave your cherries intact. As it were.”
Thanks for re-posting this – it’s truly fabulous and I’m glad to see it get wider circulation! I actually combined two different French recipes, so this is the only version just like this.
And thank you, Abra, for creating it. I’m a big fan of your blog, and I’m just getting ready to make my first corn pudding of the season with that delicious recipe of yours, also from last summer.