Clafoutis

This is June ! This is the month of my birthday and also Cherry Season. 
Here in toronto we have a lot of cherry trees that have been given to the town by Japan and when you go there around march/april you have this nice romantic atmosphere with all the blossoms. 

My favorite way to eat cherry is raw direct from the trees. I was lucky to have cherry trees in my parents backyard when we lived in Lascours, a small town in South East of France. I remember eating cherry when I came back from school. 

Raw is the best way to eat cherry but if I have to cook them, I will make Clafoutis. Clafoutis is a French classic dessert from the Limousin area. It is like a flan.  It is cherries cooked in a batter of eggs sugar and milk. It is a rustic and a comforty dessert. It can be served warm or cold but I prefer to eat mine cold. 

I use whole cherry because they are less likely to bleed into the batter and it give an almond lovely taste to the cake. But tell your guests, you don't want people break a tooth, right ? But I have been eating clafoutis for almost 30 years and so far, no accident. I might be still a child because I enjoy spitting out the pits!!!

Here is the recipe from my mom.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
25cl of milk (use whole milk)
75g of flour
25g of melted butter
125g of sugar
500g of fruit

1. Combine egg and sugar until the mixture whiten.
2. Add butter, milk and flour.
3. Pour the batter over the cherries
4. Bake for 40 min at 380F

The best Clafoutis my mom makes is the one with apple. The secret is that she  sprinkles the cake with vanilla raw sugar right out of the oven and it gets caramelized on top, yummy !!!

The classic recipe is made with cherry but the recipe works for all year round, with seasonal fruits like blueberry, apple, pears, peaches and plum... Whatever fruit you like, you can make Clafoutis with them.