Clafoutis or cherry tart

How to make cherry clafoutis .

When I was little I used to accumulate the dessert recipes that came from the magazines of the heart that my mother bought, they seemed amazing to me, with the professional photos full of color and very appetizing.

Many of them I still keep in a small homemade recipe book that I gave my mother for a birthday and recently on a visit to Ourense. Going through the recipe book, I read a very simple recipe that I remembered perfectly:  a cherry clafoutis .

This French dessert is very colorful, but the most important thing is not only its appearance, it is very simple to make and we also use seasonal fruit , cherries.

This baked dessert is made of fruits and a liquid dough very similar to that of  crepes . It will sound familiar to you, as I recently published a very similar recipe based on it, a  strawberry clafoutis that was very good. Today’s is not the original French because the cherries do not go whole, removing the cherry stone is a pain in the ass and takes time but I find it more comfortable when eating.

If you want to make the real clafoutis you just have to add the whole cherries to the dough. When you throw them whole, the juice of the cherries does not meet with the dough, so you will have the white dough as if it were a pancake. It has turned a pink color to me because I use the cherry without stone. If you make this dessert for your children, it is best to remove the central bone, so you will avoid going to the dentist.

I assure you that the result is very good, a rustic, authentic and traditional dessert. Its appearance is wonderful, perfect for a birthday or other festive events, an ideal dessert for the summer. 

Preparation of cherry clafoutis

1. We preheat the oven to 180º C and grease the oven mold where we are going to prepare the cake.
2. The best thing is to use butter and a teaspoon of flour that we will be moving around the surface of the mold so that it is fixed in the butter. This way we will avoid sticking the dessert to the base.
3. Chop the chosen nuts very well until reducing them to a flour texture.
4. We mix all the ingredients (except the cherries) paying attention that there are no lumps. You can use the mixer, and it can even be removed only with the manual rods.
5. We pour the mixture of the dough into the mold, in this case it is a 26 cm ceramic mold. in diameter, but you can use the classic 23 or 24 cm mold release. no problem. Remember that the smaller the diameter of the mold, the longer it cooks in the oven.
6. On top of the dough we will place the cherries to which we will have removed the stone (remember that they can go whole). During cooking they will remain a little covered with dough when it rises.

Baked. Final presentation of cherry clafoutis

1. We bake the clafouti for 30-35 minutes depending on the oven and the diameter of your mold (in this case as I mentioned it was 26 cm.), Each one is from its father and mother. If possible in the middle tray with heat up and down.
2. The best thing we can do to control cooking is, when there are 5 minutes left, to test if it has curdled: we put in a knife or fork and if it comes out clean it will be ready. A good clafoutis rises during cooking, don’t panic because it will drop again when it cools down.
3. Let cool (don’t get burned like me, anxious) and serve.
4. To preserve it, it is best to leave it in the fridge covered with a little plastic film for food, so it will not catch bad smells. When we are going to serve it, sprinkle with a little icing sugar.
5. Remember that it is a dessert that does not last long. Consume in a day preferably.

A perfect cake to take advantage of the cherries that are at their best. 

Here you have a step by step in photos where I show how to prepare this recipe for cherry clafoutis . Do not miss any detail so that it comes out perfect.

Curiosities about clafoutis

• The origin of this dessert is said to be the clafoutis (kla-foo-TEE) or clafouti (Anglo-Saxon spelling). It is in the city of Limousin or Limousin, also famous for its cognac barrels.
• The origin is uncertain, but we know that its popularity increased and spread in the 19th century. The traditional version is served hot and sprinkled with icing sugar.
• There are different variations of this dessert across Europe, the Dutch prepare a dessert similar to this one called Pannekoek, which includes pieces of bacon, cheese, raisins and apples.
• If the recipe calls for pears or apples, then it is called Flaugnarde, which is also known as flognarde or flagnarde.
• Clafoutis also resembles “Forêt Noire” in many ways, the recipe’s ingredients are believed to be the cross between a pancake  and the pastry cream .