What can one do with cherries, when they are purchased at $1.19 per pound. Of course, bake them with all purpose flour, the only recipe I know using cherries. Giant Eagle, the chain grocery shop, near my home is selling bing cherries for 1.19 a pound this week. No, they are not damaged. They are perfect, plump, sweet and irresistible as always and as good as the cherries I bought at farmers market last week for 3 dollars a pound.
After downing about 3 pounds, we decided to make some sort of dessert with the remaining cherries. So I baked Cherry Clafouti or more like Cherry Custard or two-inch pancake filled with cherries. This is such an easy dessert that is very simple and quick to put together.
Recipe:
Half-pound cherries- cut in half and pits removed
Half-cup pancake mix (or all purpose flour)
One-cup whole milk and one egg
2-4 tablespoons of sugar
For flavoring I added dried and powdered ginger (sonti)
Preparation:
I’ve added the pancake mix, milk, egg, sugar andsonti in a mixing bowl and whisked them by hand until all the ingredients are well combined and the batter was smooth.
This was only for us two so I used a small 6-inch oven proof-serving dish for baking. After greasing the dish, I filled it with batter and arranged the cherries, more like jam-packed. Baked this in the preheated oven at 350° F for about 40 minutes, until risen and golden. The top will be browned like a pancake and the insides will be gooey with cherry sweetness.
I didn’t add lot of sugar. The sweetness is all from cherries (I did the quality control by tasting half of each cherry:)). With mild sweetness and a texture falling between a custard and a pancake, cherry clafouti was such a delight. We loved this simple dessert.
Cherry Clafouti
Your last pic is making my mouth water. Always thought clafoutis would be eggy. I guess with one egg in your recipe, it must be cakey and delish. I have heard of cherry jam and crostata too, if you need more uses for your cherry find.
Comment by mika — June 30, 2005 @ 6:06 pm
Growing up, it was always such a big deal to stop in a Giant Eagle…we didn’t have them in my home town, but we knew about them from the Pittsburgh TV stations.
I think Giant Eagle was my first, real, *big* grocery chain.
Comment by Stephanie — June 30, 2005 @ 8:09 pm
Mika – One egg instead of two or three is intentional. I don’t know why but I don’t like the taste of eggs in some desserts. Sometimes I feel like the only thing they add to a sweet is their smell and nothing else.
Jam and Crostata – I should try those too, next time perhaps.
Stephanie – Our First ‘big chain’ experience was also Giant Eagle. Now they are building new shops like Mcbig and selling gas and everything else.
Comment by Indira — June 30, 2005 @ 8:37 pm
G.Eagle is considered a rip-off around here nowadays. My hubby is a big fan of Kroger since his days in Dayton, OH.
Comment by mika — June 30, 2005 @ 9:51 pm
That looks so yummy!
Comment by clare eats — June 30, 2005 @ 11:00 pm
Oh I agree, Indira – I dont like the eggy smell very much, especially not in desserts. Your clafoutis looks lovely – and you made me laugh with your “quality control” remark 🙂 Nice way to eat your cherries and have them too! ANOTHER dish to try!!!
Comment by Shyam (aka Shammi) — July 1, 2005 @ 7:01 am
Mika, I know, but only decent shop we have here for groceries is Giant Eagle. Just two weeks back I paid $4 for a pound of cherries in GE, You can imagine our surprise when we saw the 1.19 price this week.
Clare – thanks.
Shammi – Particularly the yolk(yellow) smell. Its like fertilizer kind of smell. I don’t know what they feed these hens here. Sometimes I really feel nauseous to that smell. I avoid as much as possible using yolks.
Comment by Indira — July 1, 2005 @ 1:08 pm
I was so amazed the process of making Cherry Clafouti coz it was easy and simple. So i tried but didnt turn up well. I followed exactly and my claufouti didnt cook well inside eventhough i set the timing more thn 50 minutes.
Indira replies:
It is a simple dessert to prepare and the insides are usually wet like custard and also it needs cooling after removing from oven for atleast one hour. I described the method I followed, sorry it didn’t work for you.
Comment by Ela — July 12, 2006 @ 7:02 pm
Hi,
I made the desseret today and somehow it did not rise like yours did. It’s probably going into the trashcan.
Indira replies:
Sorry to hear that, Misha.
Comment by Misha — July 22, 2006 @ 11:51 pm
Weird question:
When you call for pancake flour – do you mean pastry flour or pancake mix? I have looked everywhere for pancake flour – to no avail.
I bought pancake mix, in the hopes that it would work.
Also – have you tried making it with Ranier cherries? I know they’re not as cheap as regular – but they are sooooo good.
Thanks – will be making this later today.
Indira replies:
I used the pancake mix, Aunt Jemina brand (I made the corrections to the recipe.)
Funny that you ask about ranier cherries. Actually I bought them yesterday, thinking of preparing chocolate cherry clafouti. They are very good, a big test to will power, to eat or to bake.:)
Happy baking and good luck, Laura.
Comment by Laura — July 29, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
Hi Indira
Can we make this Cherry Clafouti without egg.We won’t eat eggs at all.
Thanks
Comment by laxmi — July 12, 2008 @ 5:29 pm
[…] I hadn’t made a clafoutis since that class, over two decades ago, but a few weeks ago we had a surplus of gorgeous summer cherries in the house so I dug out my old cooking school binder and whipped one up.  I’d forgotten how easy it is to make and how delicious the results are — somewhere between a fruit tart and a soft, eggy pancake. (I didn’t take a picture, but mine come out looking a lot the the one shown here.) […]
Pingback by TLT’s Table: Clafoutis — An Easy, Fruit-Filled Dessert Your Kids Can Make — September 13, 2011 @ 8:37 am
how can i make cherry clafoutis without egg ..plz let me no asap!!!1:)
Comment by ruchita — June 13, 2012 @ 10:21 am