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Clafoutis aux cerises
clafoutis aux cerises
Whole, unpitted black cherries baked in a flan-like batter of eggs, sugar, flour, cream and milk, finished with brown sugar and butter under the grill. The Limousin's cherry dessert, in Chantal Aubisse's family recipe published by the Limoges tourist office.
- Servings
- 6
- Preparation
- 15 min
- Cooking
- 53 min
- Total
- 1 h 8
- Difficulty
- Easy
Equipment
- Round baking dish, 26 cm diameter
- Mixing bowl and whisk
- Oven with a grill
Ingredients
Method
Heat the oven to 210 °C. Beat the eggs with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the flour, then the crème fraîche, then pour in the milk while mixing until the batter is smooth.
Why Adding the liquids gradually avoids lumps of flour.
Butter the dish generously, dust it with flour and tip out the excess. Spread the cherries over the bottom and pour the batter over them. Do not fill to the brim: the clafoutis rises.
Bake for 10 minutes at 210 °C, then lower to 180 °C and bake for 40 minutes more. Test with a knife: the centre should still be very slightly wobbly.
Why The hot start sets the edges and lifts the batter; the lower heat cooks it through without making it rubbery.
Timer · 50 min50:00Sprinkle with the brown sugar, dot with the butter and put under the grill for 2–3 minutes until golden. Watch closely: it colours very fast.
Timer · 3 min3:00
To drink & serve with
Editorial suggestion: a little cold cream, or a glass of sweet wine.
Substitutions
- Other fruit → Then, the Limousin insists, it is no longer a clafoutis but a flognarde.
- Pitted cherries → Possible, and safer for children, but the juice runs into the batter and the cherries lose flavour.
Common mistakes
- Overbaking: the custard turns dry and rubbery. Take it out while the centre still wobbles slightly.
- Filling the dish to the top: it rises and overflows.
Storage & reheating
Best warm or at room temperature on the day. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours. It freezes once cooked: reheat from frozen at 170 °C for 20–25 minutes, checking that the centre is hot (source).
Safety
Contains gluten, milk and egg. The cherries keep their stones: warn everyone at the table, and pit them for young children.
Allergens
Gluten · Milk · Egg
Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.
Dietary
vegetarian
Cherries only, stones in
The Limoges tourist office presents clafoutis as a Limousin speciality and gives the recipe of Chantal Aubisse, a pastry blogger from the Haute-Vienne, who learnt it from her mother and ate it every mid-June as her birthday cake. Her rules are those of the region: a real clafoutis is made only with cherries, and with other fruit it becomes a flognarde; and the cherries keep their stones. Her ingredients are local too, milk, cream and butter from a dairy two kilometres from her house and flour from the south of the department.
Why the stones stay
According to the recipe, the stone protects the skin of the cherry: with the skin intact, the fruit cooks gently, keeps its juice inside and its flavour concentrated, instead of bleeding into the batter. The batter itself is close to a pancake batter enriched with cream. It bakes in a hot oven, 210 °C for ten minutes, then at 180 °C for forty, and is finished under the grill with brown sugar and butter.
How it connects
Place
- origin Limousin In preparation