I haven’t posted here in a long time because first I was busy with school, and then I was in Europe and Canada. I’m back now, though, and not terribly busy, since I dropped that astronomy course (I wrote about that in lj, and I am sure you all skipped it laughed at my hilarious bureaucratic misadventures). Henry and I should have more to post in these next couple of weeks. We just got our first box of CSA (community supported agriculture) vegetables, and we will probably it into delicious lasagna.
Henry’s parents were in town this past week and we took them to eat a bunch of yummy Berkeley/SF places. You should come visit, because we have the restaurant-highlight-visiting down to a science. Henry’s mom left a bag of cherries in the fridge, and I’m not very good at eating cherries when I have them because the pits make them seem “like effort” even if they are delicious. So instead I thought I’d bake something with cherries in it: cherry clafoutis. The idea is simple—spend an hour of your life pitting and slicing cherries, then stick them in a cake pan, cover them with soft custard-like cake batter, and bake it.
Clafoutis aux cerises
- 1 1/2 lbs cherries, pitted and sliced (I quartered them because it is easier to get the pits out that way)*
- 3/4 c flour
- 1/2 c sugar (I used 1/3 c, and you could probably go up to 3/4 c)
- 3 eggs (yes, three!)
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (but you can substitute extract if you are not as cool as me)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3/4 c milk (I used skim, but whole is probably best… most recipes I found actually use heavy cream here)
- Powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Sift the flour and sugar together in a bowl. Melt the butter in a small saucepan on low, mix in the vanilla, and add the milk slowly, stirring all the while; let that sit 2-3 minutes (on low!). Crack the eggs on top of the flour/sugar, mix until incorporated into a batter. Finally, add the warm milk/vanilla/butter mixture, stirring (perhaps whisking!) all the while, until smooth. Careful: if the milk is too hot, the eggs will cook, which is Bad News, so keep the heat super low.
Grease a 9-inch cake pan, pour in about half the batter, layer the cherries on top, and then pour the rest of the batter over them. They cherries should peek a little. Put in the middle of the oven for 30 min or until “golden brown.” Sprinkle with powdered sugar to make it all purty.
Conclusion: It came out pretty well the first time (I have already eaten two slices, and I just made it). The cherries were tart and wonderful, and the batter was good and soft, but perhaps a tad bland? My inner baker conjectures that the recipe might benefit from a drop or two of lemon juice. Next time.
*According to wikipedia, crazy French purists leave the pits in. *shrug!*