Stefan's Gourmet Blog

Clafoutis is a flan-type cake from France, usually stuffed with cherries. I’ve stayed very close to the recipe of Stéphane’s great grandmother, which he posted on his wonderful blog My French Heaven. It is quite easy to make and it was delicious.

According to the traditional recipe, you are not supposed to pit the cherries because that will stain the flan. But it will also mean that you will have to deal with the pits when you eat the clafoutis! And so I opted to pit the cherries anyway. The clafoutis still looked very acceptable (nothing a bit of icing sugar can’t fix…).

The only problem with clafoutis is that when cherries are ripe, it usually is too hot to use the oven. But I’ve baked one anyway and I’m glad that I did.

Ingredients

For a 27 cm (11″) pie, 6-8 servings

750 grams (1.7 lbs) cherries

2 egg yolks

1 egg

100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar

100 grams (1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp) flour

250 ml (1 cup) milk

100 grams (7 Tbsp) butter, softened

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp orange extract (Stéphane’s recipe uses 2 Tbsp orange blossom extract)

2 Tbsp Kirsch

1/2 tsp salt

Preparation

Wash and dry the cherries. Remove the stems. Remove the pits or keep them in. Butter a 27 cm (11″) pie shape and arrange the cherries in a single layer. The cherries should cover the whole pie shape.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF (not fan forced).

Put the egg yolks and the sugar in a bowl.

Stir with a wooden spoon until pale, about 2 minutes.

Add the egg and whisk to incorporate.

Add the flour and butter.

Stir until there are no more lumps.

Add the milk bit by bit, stirring.

Add the vanilla extract, Kirsch, orange extract, and salt.

Whisk to mix. It will look like the mixture curdles, that is normal and nothing to worry about.

Pour the mixture over the cherries.

Smooth out the top.

Bake for 35 minutes at 180ºC/350ºF (not fan forced) until the flan has set and the top is nicely golden.

Allow to cool. It is easier to cut the clafoutis when it’s refrigerated.

Flashback

One of the tastiest and most prized types of game is venison from roe deer. A roe deer (Dutch: ree, French:  chevreuil, German: Reh, Italian: capriolo) is a small species of deer that is very picky about its food. To make this roe deer venison sous-vide, I bought a whole back so I also had bones to make a great jus. By cooking the venison sous-vide, it was cooked perfectly medium rare throughout.