When the sweet, black cherries come into season my brain immediately turns to clafoutis, a rustic French dessert of fresh, seasonal fruit suspended in a custard-like batter. Clafoutis is really simple and quick to make. Just whip up a sweet and eggy batter, pour it over the fruit, and bake. Grapes are also commonly used to make clafoutis, and I’d imagine that few fruits (especially stone fruits and berries) would not benefit from this treatment. Somehow though, I always stick with cherries and have come to associate their season with this dish specifically.

I had good fortune with cherries this year. They were surprisingly abundant. Along with my foraging partner Abbey, I was able to glean loads from under-appreciated trees in the area — so much so that I made clafoutis on 5 separate occasions! Here’s my recipe.

RECIPE: Cherry Clafoutis

Most clafoutis recipes call for heavy cream. You can certainly replace half of the milk used here with cream, but I find it is unnecessary and healthier without. I also tend to make my batter less sugary than most. I find it hard to taste the fruit underneath too much sugar, but I do add more if the cherries aren’t sweet enough to hold their own.

Ingredients:

• Butter (for dish)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/3 cup flour (I use spelt)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar + 1 tbsp to sprinkle on top
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1 pound sweet, dark cherries, pitted and cut in half

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk together the eggs, yolk, and flour in a medium sized bowl. Whisk in milk, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, and salt.

Butter a shallow, 9″ baking dish and arrange the cherries in the bottom. Pour the batter over and lightly dust the surface with a little more sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes until the custard is cooked through and has browned on top. That slight caramelization really make it!