Clafoutis

It is almost that time of the year… When you start seeing more fruits and vegetables and don’t have to rely on frozen versions – which, depending on which fruit/vegetable we are talking about, they can be quite good in its own ways. One of the fruits that I was awaiting for was cherries. Although I won’t say I am crazy about them, there was something I wanted to make with cherries (but not with the frozen variety): Clafoutis. What is that? Actually, until last year, if I heard that word, it might have sounded like something you would get in a pharmacy with a prescription. No, I learned about this in an episode of Good Eats (one of my favourite cooking shows – the episode in particular was Going Dutch, which also feature another recipe that I like but I have extremely time consuming: No Knead Bread). And what is clafoutis? Check this picture below…

The link to the recipe is here; however, for convenience sake, I will copy-n-paste it below, starting of with the ingredients:

• 12 ounces fresh or frozen cherries
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Butter, for the Dutch oven

And, now, the steps (with my comments in italics):

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F or prepare charcoal for cooking outdoors by heating coals in a chimney starter until hot and ashy.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 5-quart Dutch oven. If using fresh cherries, rinse, stem and pit the cherries. If using frozen, place the cherries into a colander and allow to thaw completely before using. Discard the juice. Spread the cherries evenly over the bottom of the Dutch oven.

In the show itself, Alton made a comment that, in France, they do not pit the cherries. Well, I am willing to give it a try so I did NOT pit them! And, oh, I wanted to try with the regular version of cherries first.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until frothy and lightened in color. Add the milk, vanilla and flour and whisk to combine. Pour the batter over the cherries.

In the show, the milk, vanilla and flour are not added all at the same time. Instead, Alton adds first the milk, whisk it; add vanilla, more whisking; finally the flour. Also, ingredients did not have to be exactly measured, always a good thing for people like me who do not really like baking for that reason.

I know, I know, this is not a 5 quart Dutch oven, but it was cast iron, nonetheless! I could have used my larger Dutch oven but given the amount, I was not sure at that point and time.

Oven baking

Bake on the middle rack, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

This is the method I followed. Now, there is one step I did not follow and that was inserting the knife. The reason? Because it wasn’t too deep, I don’t think there would have had anything to “cling” on… However, it was starting to look “golden brown delicious”!

Outdoor coals

Place 18 to 19 coals on a Dutch oven table. Place a cooling rack, or other wire rack, that is at least 2-inches high, directly over the coals. Place the Dutch oven on the rack directly over the coals. Cover with the lid and place 22 to 23 coals on top. Cook with the lid on for 25 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes or until golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

It was not an option for me, so…

Allow to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the Dutch oven, slicing and serving. (End of recipe).

Again, a slice of the final result.

Natural lightning *really* helps you take pictures!

So, how was it? I must say it is not that easy to describe. First, the cherries were “cooked” and, as a result, they were soft (in a good way). The challenge was you had to be careful with them as they were not de-pitted. So, I had fun with that part. As for the batter, it turn into something similar to a custard/pancake but with a harder consistency. It kept its egg-y flavour while, at the same time, you could taste the hints of vanilla. OVerall, it was great!

If I were to do this recipe again (and you can bet I will since it is really simple), there will be some modifications I will do:

• Bake it in a glass baking dish. I think the Dutch oven was for the show purposes only, I am sure a baking dish would have worked as well.
• Depending on the size of the baking dish, most probably I will make it double. Again, in the picture above, it ended up in somewhat thin layer.
• Try other fruits! If I do this in winter, most probably will end up using frozen fruits but I am sure some fruits like strawberries will work as well (in the show, apricots and figs were suggested).

You know what, I might as well start doing one now! ^_^;

Tagged under: Home Cooking