Clafoutis aux Cerises

I own quite a few french cookbooks. (no, I don't have Julia Child's but I'll get it soon I'm sure). I have to admit that I have rarely ever used them. I just like looking at the pictures (like most of my cookbooks). I remember that a long time ago I saw a recipe for a classic french dessert. Clafoutis aux Cerises. I love cherries. My favorite combination is chocolate and cherry and most all of my friends will remember a time when I had my usual black forest birthday cake, Angel food cake with cherries, or cherry cheesecake. Every time my birthday rolls around I have some kind of cake with cherries. I was intrigued by this french dessert but never ventured to make it. Then late one night I saw Alton Brown make one in a dutch oven and he made it look so easy I thought that definately I would try it. So now that I'm here in France, I want to try to learn how to cook some classic french dishes. So tonight I made it. The boys whined about how they didn't like cherries and I said, "Good. More for me". It was like a cross between a rice pudding (with no rice and raisins) and a cherry pie. Super easy, and super good. And it's not even too sugary. Here's the recipe I used tonight.

Clafoutis aux Cerises
1 pound ripe cherries (I actuallyused fresh pitted cherries from a jar. And not marashino)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp powdered sugar
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 c milk or light creme
2 eggs
1/2 lemon zested
pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Make sure cherries are pitted. Mix them with the lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Set aside for hour. *Note: Since I used cherries from a jar, they were already sitting in sugar, so I completely omitted this step. I went straight to step 2.

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a shallow ovenproof dish. (ie pie plate) Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the sugar and slowly whisk in the milk until smoothly blended. Add the eggs, lemon zest, nutmeg, and vanilla extract and whisk until well combined and smooth.

Scatter cherries evenly over bottom of the baking dish. Pour the batter over cherries and bake for 45 minutes , or until it is set and puffed around the edges. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean. Serve warm or room temperature. I dusted it with powdered sugar.

I think that next time I'll try it with another fruit. This would be really good with pears or peaches. Until next time.