Clafoutis, French Sweet Cherry Dessert
Before Hawaii: a story and recipe from The Baking Wizard!
Clafoutis, sometimes spelled clafouti, and pronounced cla-foo-tee, is a French dessert of sweet cherries baked in a custardy batter. It is served warm dusted with powdered sugar and is very easy to make. You don’t even have to pit the cherries! At least that’s what some baking purists claim. But unless you’re going to eat the dessert out of doors where spitting out cherry pits is not a problem, I recommend pitting.
Clafoutis originated in Limousin, a region in south central France, where black cherries grow well. But you can make clafoutis with all sorts of other fruits including raspberries, sour cherries, apples, prunes, blackberries, or cranberries. The dish's name comes from the Occitan clafotís, from the verb clafir, meaning "to fill." In this case, a custard filled with cherries. Occitan is a Romance Language spoken in several European areas including southern France and parts of Italy and Spain.