Cherry Clafoutis youpi! Though I love cherries best fresh and raw, I also like to make this recipe which is especially nice for breakfast the day after it is made. Clafoutis is a French dessert that is a kind of cross between a fruit flan and a cake. The original version made with milk, cream, butter and sugar can be a bit on the heavy side. I make my version gluten and dairy-free (though I personally do like to use butter instead of the oil element) and frankly it is just as delicious. I also use no refined sugar, adding only a little bit of maple syrup and letting the fruit do the rest. You can make the same recipe with any seasonal fruit. In the summer, apricots and peaches work particularly well in this recipe too.
Ingredients
- 500-600g of fresh cherries
- 25+ cl of almond or oat milk
- 3 eggs
- 50g of organic butter (if you want it to be completely dairy-free you can use olive or another neutral oil instead)
- 80g of almond flour + an extra handful for the gratin dish
- 40-50g of rice flour
- 8 cl of maple syrup
- 1 whole vanilla bean or 1/3 teaspoon of vanilla powder
- the zest of one lemon
- 2-3 tablespoons of kirsch (optional)
- a medium deep dish such as a gratin dish
Make it!
- Preheat an oven to 180°C.
- Wash and pit the cherries. Mix the cherries with the kirsch (optional) and lemon zest and set aside.
- Grease the gratin dish, spread some of the almond flour around the sides and bottom, and set aside.
- In a little casserole, gently warm the milk with the butter and the vanilla bean cut in half length-wise and scraped. As soon as the milk is warm and only just starting to simmer, take off the heat and set it aside.
- Mix the two flours in a bowl, beat the eggs and mix them into the flour with a whisk. Take the vanilla bean skin out of the milk and slowly whisk the milk into the flour/egg mixture. Once the mix is well blended, add the maple syrup and mix well. The consistency of the mix should be like heavy liquid cream so if it is too thick add a little more milk and if too liquid, add a little rice flour. You can try various combinations of the almond and rice percentage depending on your taste.
- Spread the cherries into the gratin dish and add any of the liquid from the cherries into the batter mix, mixing it well. Add the batter on top of the cherries, allowing it to cover them completely and spread evenly.
- Cook the clafoutis for 45 minutes or so, until the top is a nice golden brown colour. Allow it to cool before serving though it can be served warm too.
Enjoy!