cherry-clafoutis_ready-to-eat

Lately in the blogosphere I have seen a lot of bloggers making Julia Child’s Cherry Clafoutis in honor of the movie, Julie & Julia. Well it just so happens that I also made Cherry Clafoutis last week because… I had an overabundance of cherries.
As it happens, the grocery store had 2 for 1 Rainier cherries on sale, and so I bought some. When I got back, I asked on facebook what I should make with them. A lot of great ideas came back, like cherry pie, duck breast with cherry balsamic reduction, and chocolate covered cherries. But I chose Haley’s suggestion for Clafoutis. I have always wanted to make Clafoutis and so as soon as she suggested it I knew that was what I was making.

However, I studied a bunch of recipes, including the Clafoutis recipe in my new favorite cookbook (more on that next week) Nourishing Traditions and all called for either cream, or creme fraiche – neither of which I had on hand. This wouldn’t have been a very Leftover Queen-ish recipe, if I went to the store to get just one item…so I did what I had to, and called upon my Twitter resources.

My friend Peter, from Kalofagas, directed me to his Clafoutis of Berries recipe that called for milk, which I did have. I trust Peter’s recipes, if you have yet to make your way to his blog, please do! It is one of my favorites. So I used most of Peter’s recipe, but omitted some of the items – although I promise Peter, I will make it your way at some point! :)

cherry-clafoutis_preparing

Needless to say, if you have enjoyed Clafoutis before, we absolutely loved it. Straight out of the oven, it was like a delicious and sweet soufflé. This recipe made enough batter for two individual Le Creuset ramekins and one small glass baking dish – yeah for leftovers!

Cherry Clafoutis (with MILK)

INGREDIENTS:

Organic Butter – to butter the dishes
2 ½ cups of halved cherries
4 organic eggs
1 ¼ cup organic milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unbleached AP flour
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of Sicilian blood orange salt

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter the oven proof bowls or dish(es). Add berries. In a large bowl combine eggs and milk and whisk together until smooth. Then add cinnamon, vanilla, sugar and salt and mix until incorporated. Pour mixture on top of berries leaving about ¼ of the berries exposed. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Let Clafoutis sit for about 15 minutes before serving. Leftovers are delicious cold!