“Clafoutis aux cerises ” or traditional french cherry cake.

It is cherry season again !! Time to make some cherry cake or as we say “clafoutis” in Provence. This is a very simple recipe that sure will delect eveybody.

 

For 6 people and a round baking dish about 10″ diameter  2 ” deep :

Butter the botton of the mold .Then fill it up with enough cherries to cover the mold entirely and almost have a partial second layer of fruits ( you’ll need almost 2 pounds of fruits ) .Pit the cherries carefully !!

Cover the fruits with a batter made with :

2 eggs lightly beaten , 200ml of whipping cream,

50grs of grounded almonds ( about 4 tablespoons ) available at Trader Joes . Ralph and Whole foods also sell almond meal

75grs of self rising flour  ( about 4 tablespoons ) , 40 grs of melted butter , 75 to 100 grs of sugar depending on how sweet or not the cherries are ( 4 to 6 tbs ) , vanilla ( extract or beans) and a dash of a good dark rhum .

( please note that the tablespoons measurements are really approximative….my mum said a couple of soup spoons = 2 tbs ??  I measure in grams not in tbs…..measuring in grams will give you the perfect result and you won’t take the chance to have  a cake to heavy in flour ….)

Sprinkle with some coarse crystallized sugar and a few sliced almonds .Bake at 350F for about 30 to 40 mns ( until knife comes out clean and cake is golden brown )

Serve with some panacotta ice cream or vanilla ice cream. I think that cake is best eaten a few hours after it’s done …almost still a bit warm so I try to make it late afternoon if we’ll have it for dinner. It gets a bit soggy the next day with the moisture of the fruits.