Best cherry dessert recipe ever

Clafoutis, it’s a fancy word for flan

 

As the last of the season’s cherries are being sold at farmers markets around Vancouver (and the ones in our fridge have seen slightly better days) this cherry clafoutis recipe gets a thorough workout in our house. It’s a favourite dessert for guests and hosts alike, and we preserve a lot of cherries just so we can enjoy it year-round.

 

I prefer to make the pastry from scratch so that the end result still has the taste and texture of pastry, rather than a biscuit. But if you want to buy a pie shell, that’s up to you. We acquired this recipe from Chef Keisuke Matsushima’s, a Japanese-born, French-trained chef who runs a Michelin-star restaurant in Nice, France.

 

Pastry ingredients

500g flour

200g icing sugar

225g room temperature butter

160g egg yolk (about 8-10 yolks)

 

Pastry directions:

Preheat oven to 180° C/355° F. Combine all the ingredients until they begin to hold together as a dough. Put the dough in fridge for 20-30 minutes. This will harden the butter and prevent the dough from crumbling when you roll it out. Roll the pastry out in a circle large enough for your pie dish (I use a 25cm diameter dish). Using the rolling pin, lift the pastry into your dish (avoid touching the pastry with your hands where possible, as it melt the butter). Pop the pastry and pie dish into the freezer for 15 minutes to harden the butter again. Poke holes in the bottom of the pastry without a fork and bake for 20 minutes. Brush the fork holes with some melted butter, and put it back in the oven for a minute (this will seal the holes).

 

Filling ingredients

500g cream

100g milk

100g sugar

4 eggs

500g cherries (cherries are best/traditional but any fruit can be substituted)

 

Filling directions

Mix the cream, milk, sugar and eggs. Put pitted cherries into the pastry shell. Pour in half of the cream filling. Place in the oven and add the rest of the cream mixture (this step is so you don’t spill it everywhere as you put it in the oven). Bake for 30-40 minutes, until cream is set. You may need to put some aluminium foil over the pastry edges to prevent them from drying out or burning.

 

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