Clafouti

For dessert for French Bastille Day day dinner clafouti was requested. Clafouti is a very traditional french dessert, usually made with cherries, but other fruit in season such as plums and blackberries can be used.  But we are in cherry season so we used cherries and in honour of Julia Child's 100th birthday on August 15 this year we stuck pretty close to Julia Child's original recipe.

Recipe for 6 servings

1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar, divided
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
3 cups cherries, pitted
powdered sugar, for garnish


Preheat oven to 350, combine the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour. You could use a blender, but I used a whisk and a bowl.


Lightly butter deep pie plate or some other similar baking dish, and pour a 1/4-inch layer of the blended mixture over the bottom. Set remaining batter aside. Place dish into the oven for about 7-10 minutes, until a film of batter sets in the pan but the mixture is not baked through. Remove from oven (but don’t turn the oven off, yet).

Distribute the pitted cherries over the set batter in the pan. I have to say thank you to Helen for pitting all these cherries, we had to make two dishes and that was a lot of cherries.

then sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Pour the remaining batter over the cherries and sugar.

The recipe says to bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes, but I found that 30 was enough, any way bake until the clafouti is puffed and brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.

This a wonderful easy delicious dessert, and apparently it can be served for breakfast, and really I do not see why not, it is kind of like a thick baked pancake with fruit in it. Any way I think this fulfilled Pete's vision and there was not one piece left of the two pie plates after 13 people had devoured it, so I think it is safe to say one serves 6.

We finished off the meal with some cheese, the remainder of the cherries and some more French red wine.  This was a wonderful evening and for once the weather co-operated and we were able to sit outside comfortably as darkness fell. For a little while I imagined I was entertaining in the gardens of a villa in Provence, instead of Port Moody British Columbia.