Each June Roger picks the wild cherries (les guignes) from the trees in the vineyards and brings baskets of them back for Annie to make her delicious cherry clafoutis (somewhere between a flan and a cake). The slight sourness of the wild cherries combines perfectly with the sweetness of the Clafoutis but fresh black cherries are just as delicious.
This recipe is all about getting the proportions right so Annie measures her dry ingredients in a small 10 cl cup and uses a 20 cm x 30 cm baking tray to cook the clafoutis in. Preparation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 30 minutes
Heat oven to 190 °C
Ingredients for 10 portions
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of plain flour
2 eggs Pinch of salt
15 – 20 cl single cream
1 tablespoon of rum
700g of cherries
1. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.
2. Add the salt followed by the sugar and whisk again.
3. Add the sieved flour and mix well.
4. Add the single cream and rum and stir well to make a smooth batter of pouring consistency.
5. Butter the baking tray and cover the bottom with the pitted cherries.
6. Cover the cherries with a good sprinkling of caster sugar. Wild cherries will need a lot more sugar than black cherries.
7. Pour over the batter mixture.
8. Cook at 190 C for 30 – 35 minutes or until a knife blade comes out clean.
9. Leave to cool then slice into 10 portions.
Annie’s alternative
The cherries can be replaced by other fruits such as apricots or raspberries. To remove some of the bitterness from the apricots half the apricots and take out the stone then bring to the boil in a saucepan of water. As soon as the water boils drain off the water and then arrange the apricots in the base of the baking tray. Apricots will need a good thick sprinkling of sugar to balance the acidity.
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