Cherry clafoutis is an exquisite typical French dessert that can be eaten both for breakfast and as an excellent after-meal. Milk, eggs, flour and sugar: the clafoutis dough resembles that of crêpes, but with the addition of these small juicy pearls completely immersed in the cream.
The best known version is with cherries, but it can be prepared with all seasonal fruit; from strawberries and berries in general, to peaches and plums.
How to make clafoutis
A few tricks to know
The cherry clafoutis does not need any special care. The only factor to take into consideration is the excessive release of juice from the fruit. It is said that the custom of cooking the cherries with the stone was adopted precisely to avoid this risk and thus make the clafoutis sufficiently dry.
Today this is not necessary, just use very firm fruit.
Which cherries to choose
The original recipe for cherry clafoutis calls for the use of black bigarreaux cherries (scratches). These are fruits with an intense red color that ripen between the end of May and the beginning of June.
In the absence of this particular quality, you can choose without problems the black calluses of Vignola, sweet and with a firm pulp.
Cherry clafoutis: original recipe
Clafoutis of cherries
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 125 g of whole yoghurt
- 70 g of 00 flour
- 500 g of pitted cherries
- 90 g of sugar
- a few drops of vanilla extract
- sunflower oil to grease the pan
Instructions
- Whip the whole eggs with the sugar until you obtain a very swollen and clear mixture that has reached twice its initial volume.
- Add the yogurt and a few drops of vanilla essence. Gently mix with a hand whisk.
- Sift the flour carefully and incorporate it delicately with a spatula or a wooden spoon, trying not to disassemble the mixture, making movements from top to bottom.
- Line a mold or baking dish with a diameter of about 22-26 cm with parchment paper and then brush it with very little oil.
- Pour the pitted cherries on the bottom, then cover them with the mixture. Bake in a preheated static oven at 180° for about 35 minutes or until the clafoutis is golden brown on the surface.
Cherry clafoutis: rural and ancient origin
The main feature of this dessert is that the fruit is cooked inside the dough. It is not certain that the etymology is precisely this but the dialect clafir, from which clafoutis derives, means to fill. During cooking, therefore, the fruit releases its juices, dyeing the mixture a beautiful purple colour. And making it particularly delicate. The final consistency is therefore not spongy, like that of a classic sponge cake, but soft and moist.
Typical of Limousin, a French region that is now part of New Aquitaine, cherry clafoutis is a sweet that has ancient peasant origins. In fact, farmers who went to the fields to work used to have lunch with this atypical cake in which the very fragrant wild black cherries were cooked with lots of pits.
The preparation of the clafoutis was therefore concentrated between May and June, the heyday of the cherries.
The variants to know
As mentioned, the cherry clafoutis is not the only known version of the dessert. Any type of fruit can be used, as long as it is ripe and sweet. The one with apples can become a particular interpretation of the classic apple pie. While the clafoutis with peaches is an exquisite summer variant.
The savory clafoutis is also delicious. Replace the sugar with grated cheese and use all kinds of vegetables. And if you love recycling leftovers in a creative and tasty way, use soaked stale bread instead of flour.
Cherry clafoutis: nutritional properties and menus
Absolute queens of this dessert are the cherries. Antioxidants, purifiers, detoxifiers, cherries have a very low calorie content, only 38 calories per 100 grams of product. They are also rich in water.
Here are the nutrients of cherries in detail:
- Sodium (mg) 3
- Potassium (mg) 229
- Calcium (mg) 30
- Phosphorus (mg) 18
- Ferro (mg) 0.6
- Tiamina (mg) 0.03
- Riboflavin (mg) 0.03
- Niacin (mg) 0.5
- Vitamin C (mg) 11
- Folic acid (μg) 7
- Vitamin A retinol equivalent (μg) 19.
The only problem with this fruit is its sweet taste which leads to eating it in large quantities (after all one leads to another) exceeding the daily requirement of sugars.
The cherry clafoutis also provides a good amount of high biological value proteins brought by eggs and yogurt. Our version of cherry clafoutis is low in sugar and provides 110 calories per serving. A manageable amount within a varied and balanced diet.
