Cherry Clafoutis

In the yard next to ours, there is a huge old cherry tree that seems to be mostly untended.  Every year in late may, the starlings, black birds and magpies come to feast on the ripening cherries and our neighbor picks a few bags for himself and for friends from the low hanging branches that the birds have missed.  This year, he offered me a bag of these lovely, tart pie cherries and, of course, my first thought was to make clafoutis.

Clafoutis is basically a dense custard cake, differing from a flan in that its custard is made with the addition of flour.  The result is almost like a crepe batter, and it forms the perfect vehicle for soaking up the juices of any fruit baked in it. At the restaurants, we made clafoutis with a whole range of fruits, including pears, berries, cherries, plums, figs, peaches and more.  But pie cherries are the classic version of clafoutis and my personal favorite.

The question of whether or not to pit the cherries before baking them into a clafoutis is one that is hotly debated here in the southwest.  Some say that leaving the pits in makes for cherries that are full of juice and more delicious.  Others say the whole idea is for the juice of the fruit to mix in with the clafoutis batter.  The receptionist at the veterinary clinic where we take our cats (who seems pretty well informed on the matter) says that the choice is regional:  around La Rochelle and the Poitou, she claims, pits are left in. In the deep southwest, like where we are in the Béarn, pits are removed.  For me, the inconvenience of eating a dessert with unpitted cherries seems to be the most important point, so I pit.

One note on alcohol used in clafoutis.  Dark rum and a little vanilla are traditional.  However, when making this clafoutis, it seemed to me that the combination of cherries and Armagnac would be a winner. So I left out the vanilla and substituted a few tablespoons of Bas-Armagnac for the rum.  I think it worked out very well!

 

Tagged cherries