This was a very straightforward dish, an eggy batter poured over cherries and baked until puffed and golden. It was very easy to put together, the whole batter is made in the blender, and the addition of almond and vanilla extracts as well as kirsh gave it some complexity of flavour. I’m always happy to see kirsh turn up on an ingredient list, because other than fondue au fromage, I’m not quite sure what to do with it.
The recipe recommends pitting the cherries, but gives the option to leave them whole. I left them au naturel and warned my guests. We didn’t have any incidents at dinner, however the next day I bit down on a cherry stone and may have loosened a tooth. The final dish was quite sweet, but I believe this was my fault. In rereading the recipe I notice that it called for sour cherries, and I’m fairly sure I used Bings from the grocery store. The sour cherries would have been welcome here, or if using sweet, cut the sugar.
This dish is located in the Fruit Desserts chapter of the book, but I think it would be more at home in with the Breakfast and Brunch section. It was billed as being “halfway between custard and cake”, turns out this is the state known as pancake. I was hoping it would be less sweet and more boozy, but as I mentioned that was probably my fault.
7 replies on “11. Cherry Clafouti p. 817”
To be honest, this dessert was not one of my favourites. I would agree with you that it belongs on a breakfast menu — say a classed-up version of Smitty’s. The dessert was far too heavy to eat after a meal and might do better as a brunch component. In fact, that’s a great idea, this dish would be a welcome sight at a brunch or even afternoon tea. (It wouldn’t be a proper post from me unless I managed to make it somehow Victorian).
I agree, I gave it 3 mushrooms as as estimated score. Which it might have deserved if I’d used sour cherries. As it was, I’d say it deserved ~2 mushrooms.
My mother has a variation of this recipe with apricots, but it also applies to prunes (yuck!) and plums. And after having baked a few sweets from these “Housewife’s First Cookbooks” I realize that these recipes end up being sweeter then they need to be.
Yea, it’s quite surprising how sweet things used to be. I guess it has a lot to do with the stuff like sugar rationing. We’re drowning in high fructose corn syrup these days, so super sweet isn’t quite the treat it might have been back in the day.
You sound like a communist.
Capitalist excess will ruin your palate!
And self-denial offers nothing.