It’s the height of cherry season, and conversations around Gastronomicon HQ are riding an excited buzz about the local Bings, Raniers, and Sours that are soon to show up at the local farmer’s markets. Cherry fever seems to have gripped the rest of the nation, too. For instance, I just discovered an online store that sells Washington State cherries for about 5 times more than what my local supermarket charges. Of course, these cherries are hand-picked, allowed to ripen on the tree, and quintuple-checked against discolouration, softness, size, Scientology affiliation, and all other potential cherry misdeeds. Of course, there is no way I could afford to buy these beauties, so they sit on their website and taunt me with their scarlet words: plump, juicy, tart, ripe…whew. Enough to make a girl want to go to confession for lusting after them.

Luckily, I’ve figured out a tasty way to make penance. As of last week, the locally-grown cherries hadn’t hit the farmer’s market, so I made do with some perfectly acceptable (if not completely perfect) supermarket cherries. What’s more, my Cinderella cherries were actually quite lovely after being allowed to dress up a bit. Since I really don’t need any extra reasons to buy cherries, the sale at the supermarket was a good start to finding out how many cherry-themed dishes I could concoct before getting completely sick of them (until next year, of course). So, yesterday as I meandered through recipes to try, I came across a few for clafoutis, a dish I’d heard of but never tried. It looked so charming and rustic in the picture that I was obliged to give it a go. Clafoutis is actually one of the easiest desserts ever, apart from the slightly bloody task of cherry pitting (for those of us who like to do it by hand). Thus, I urge you not to wear anything other than black when pitting cherries. It’s also a good idea to wash thoroughly before stepping outside, even to get the mail, as your neighbours may give strange looks at the dark smears and flecks of cherry guts around your mouth and under your fingernails.

The recipe I used ended up being a slightly-modified version of the one from Chocolate & Zucchini . The result was a wonderfully spongy, eggy bed for the cherries to nestle in and await their fate. Next time I might add a bit of lemon zest to the batter, but apart from that, this dish needs no other modification or accompaniment. It’s best served the day it is made, at room temperature (warming it up makes the eggy flavour stand out a bit too much). However, for breakfast I also bravely ate some cold, straight from the fridge, with no complaints.

Cherry Clafoutis
(adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini)

3 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter
3 cups pitted cherries
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole blanched almonds
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
A pinch of salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk

Confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and generously grease an 8 or 9-inch pan with butter.

Grind the almonds with the flour in the bowl of a food processor. Mix in the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition. Pour in the melted butter and milk, and continue mixing until well blended. The mixture will be thin, like crepe batter.

Arrange the cherries in the baking dish. Pour the batter over the cherries, and bake for 40 minutes or until batter has set and is golden.

Transfer the dish to a rack and cool to room temperature. Sift confectioner’s sugar over and serve.

A note: Many pictures I’ve seen show the clafoutis with what seems to be less batter than what is used here, presumably so one can make a clever design with the cherries and not have it obscured by the batter. I have not tried this, but assume it would work fine with half the batter and a slightly reduced cooking time.