- Hey guys, so cherries are at the peak of their season,
and one of my favorite desserts to serve with them
is a classic French cherry clafouti.
If you're not familiar with a clafouti,
it is an egg custard dessert
that's typically served with cherries,
although you can use really any fruit you like.
You typically see them a lot in the markets in France,
and you'll see big slabs of them,
or sometimes even turned into a cake.
It's the perfect little snack
when you're shopping the markets,
and definitely always keeps my kids happy.
So the first thing we're gonna do
is create the batter for our clafouti.
So in a large bowl you're going to add
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour,
and then you're slowing going to whisk it in
1 /14 cup of milk.
You want to do it slowly so that you're able to
really incorporate that flour well
and that you don't have any clumps.
And then to that we're gonna add 3/4 cup of heavy cream.
You can stir that in.
And then we're also gonna add
two eggs and two egg yolks.
Now I like to add the egg yolks because again,
it's just gonna create a really
delicious richness to our clafouti.
And then we're gonna add a 1/2 a cup of sugar.
And two tablespoons of kirsch.
Now if you're not familiar with kirsch,
it is a cherry liquor that just brings out the best flavor
of the clafouti, but if you don't drink, that's okay.
You could definitely leave it out,
and instead you might want to add maybe
a 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract.
That would actually be really good.
You're also gonna add one teaspoon of vanilla
and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Just to brighten all those flavors.
Go ahead and whisk it up, and basically your batter is done.
Okay, so here comes the hardest part of this recipe.
It's not really the hardest, just tedious,
which is pitting the cherries.
And this is where I break with tradition,
because I know in France it can be traditional
to leave the pits in the cherries.
A lot of people say that it actually brings out
the best flavor in the cherry.
For me, it brings out my anxiety as a mother.
Hello, choking hazard!
I do not want any pits in my cherries
to desserts that I am feeding my kids,
so I go ahead and take the time to pit them.
Now to make this task go even easier,
you are going to fall in love with the cherry pitter.
It is this little contraption that you put your cherry in.
You press this gadget and voilà!
Out comes the pit.
I'll put a link in the description
if you guys want to know where to get one.
And then at this stage you can bake your clafouti
either in an oven-safe casserole,
or what I like to do just because it's a fun, rustic dessert
is bake it in a cast iron skillet.
We're also just gonna lightly grease it
with some melted butter.
And then you can go ahead and place the cherries
in a single layer on the bottom.
And then we are going to pour our beautiful custard on top.
Then we are going to pop this in a 350 degree
Fahrenheit oven for just about 35 to 40 minutes.
We're looking for the clafouti to puff up
and turn golden brown.
That's how you'll know that it's done.
And go ahead and allow it to cool on your cooktop.
And don't be alarmed, because as it cools,
it will start to deflate, but that's okay.
Because that's what's going to make this
really dense and delicious.
Okay, now at this stage you've got two ways to go.
You can either serve your clafouti warm,
which is actually a popular thing to do here in the States.
However, for my husband who is French,
that is a real deal breaker, and it has to be served
either room temperature or preferably cold.
So you can go ahead and pop it in the fridge just like that.
Usually for about two to three hours will do the trick.
And then the finishing touch,
and I think this is probably just my American side,
I do like to finish it with a little bit of powdered sugar,
just because I think it looks pretty that way.
And because this is a dessert that I usually serve
when we're entertaining in a casual way, normally outside,
I will just take a big spoon and spoon it out onto a plate
and dollop with a little bit of homemade whip cream.
I will say this will be the perfect dessert
to go with our shrimp rolls and corn salad.
This is a great dessert for that meal,
because this too could be served chilled.
If you missed that video,
you can click the annotation and get caught up.
I'll also put a link in the description.
I hope you guys give this one a try,
and let me know what you think.
And I will see you back here next week
for another delicious recipe.
Until then, bye.
(upbeat French music)