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Serves 4 – 6

Clafoutis is a rustic, country farm house, ‘batter style’, dessert, hailing from the Limousin region of France and is traditionally made with cherries. The original recipe calls for whole cherries with the pits in them, as the pits impart an almondy flavour; however, I always pit mine for more enjoyable eating. Clafoutis may also be made with blueberries, plums, apricots, pears, apples or blackberries, whatever takes your fancy really. It is simply a pancake batter poured over fruit in a fireproof baking dish and baked in the oven. It looks like a tart and usually eaten warm.
You may make clafoutis either in a 26cm overproof quiche dish or, as I prefer, in individual ovenproof dishes and serve them in the dishes.

500g cherries, pitted
3 tbsp sugar plus an extra one for sprinkling over the cherries
2 tbsp kirsch or another cherry liqueur of your choice
5g butter, softened
60g plain flour
Pinch of salt
4 eggs
500ml milk – you may use 250ml cream and 250ml milk for a richer clafoutis
Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Grease the baking dish with the butter.

Wash and pit the cherries. Place them in the base of the dish. I like a generous covering of fruit. Sprinkle the cherries with one tablespoon of sugar and the kirsch.

Mix the sugar and flour. Lightly whisk the eggs and add the milk. Mix well and pour onto the dry ingredients, gently whisking to make a nice, smooth batter, a little thicker than that for pancakes.

At this stage, I cover and refrigerate the batter until required. Just before the main course, I continue with the next steps, so the clafoutis is still warm when served.

Pour the batter over the cherries and bake in a preheated 160°C fan-forced oven for approximately 45 minutes for the large one or 25 – 30 minutes for the individual ones; cook until the clafoutis is puffy and golden. Cool slightly and dust with icing sugar.

Serve warm with our vanilla bean ice cream and lightly whipped cream.

Crème Chantilly – French cream

100ml cream
castor sugar to taste
½ tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste, or to your taste

Mix ingredients together and beat to soft peaks.

The Italian version of this is called Panna Montata