clafoutis

A lot of my culinary adventures are spurred on by random things. I might see a recipe or idea on TV, hear someone talk about a new dish, or read about someone else's adventure online. This dish, was initially inspired by this version cooked up at I'm only here for the food. Kim's post, along with cherries for $2.89/lb at Superstore were reason enough to give it a go. The over the top moment came when I turned on Food Network Tuesday morning and (no word of a lie), Alton Brown was preparing this exact dish. Coincidence..or fate! Muhahahaha ^-^!

It really couldn't be an easier dessert/breakfast/snack to put together. Besides the cherries, I'm sure you have all the ingredients lying around the house. I whipped two eggs with 1/4 cup of sugar until fluffy with a slight colour change. Next I added a glug of vanilla, 1/2 cup of homo milk, and finally 1/2 cup of flour. Easy as pancake batter!

I buttered up the inside of my trusty dutch oven before throwing in 12 ounces of cherries. No I did not pit them..the French would scoff at you for this, and then poured in my batter.

My 400 degree preheated oven was ready, and so everything went in. It took around 35 minutes to cook through and get a nice golden crust. The recipe says to allow the clafoutis to stay in the dutch oven for 30 minutes (oh the wait!) before taking out.

The dish is tasty. The base almost has an egg custard feel too it, and the cooked cherries were wonderful, albeit, slightly dangerous pods of explosive flavour. I noticed the pits had softened, allowing the knife to slice thru when serving. I have a feeling the extended cooking time was caused by my somewhat deeper version, but I don't think it did anything to affect the end result. Would I make this again - you bet! Thanks to Kim and Mr. Brown.

* On Kim's post, he mentions the idea of trying the dish with different fruits. Looking around the net, I discovered this would be grounds for a name change. No longer would it be clafoutis, instead flognarde.