Julia Child's Cherry Clafouti Recipe
Celebrate Cherry Season With This Julia Child Classic
With ample pockets of fruit and a texture somewhere in between a custard, a cake, and a dutch baby, the clafouti (pronounced kla-foo-tee) is a classic French dessert that should be on your radar.
Traditionally (and in this Julia Child recipe) sweet, dark Summer cherries are the fruit of choice, though berries or diced stone fruit (like plums or nectarines) also work wonderfully with the puffy custard base. (Come wintertime, this cranberry variation can't be beat.) Supertraditional recipes also call for leaving cherry pits intact for more flavor, but we have to instruct against this move: imagine accidentally biting into a rock-hard pit, ouch!
Serve it warm at the end of a dinner party (it takes about as much effort to prep as a crumble or crisp). Leftovers are a bit more dense and make for an ideal morning-after breakfast when topped with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt or crème fraiche.
Cherry Clafouti
Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups cherries, pitted
Powdered sugar, for dusting
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 7-8 cup baking dish.
- In a blender, blend the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, and flour until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the baking dish. Add the cherries to the batter. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. The clafouti is done when puffed and brown and a knife plunged in the center comes out clean.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve warm.
Information
- Category
- Desserts, Cake
- Cuisine
- North American
- Yield
- Serves 6-8
