Clafoutis

A clafoutis is a kind of tart or very thick crêpe from the Limousin, a region near the center of France whose most famous city is Limoges. The traditional clafoutis par excellence is the clafoutis aux cerises, made from cherries. In its simplest and most rustic form, the unpitted cherries are spread out in a distinctive metal clafoutis pan, which looks vaguely like a paella pan, and enough sweetened crêpe batter just to cover the cherries is poured over them. The whole thing is baked until the batter sets and lightly browns. Just before serving, the clafoutis is sprinkled with powdered sugar. Cookbooks abound with variations based mainly on substituting other fruits, such as strawberries or plums, and, most important, pitting the cherries so you’re not sitting there spitting out pits as you eat your wedge of clafoutis. More sophisticated versions may replace the crêpe batter with pastry cream, which is very similar except that it’s been cooked on the stove and thickened before it is used. Some recipes add powdered almonds, turning the batter into a kind of frangipane and the clafoutis into a tart called a tarte bourdaloue or tarte alsacienne. All of these mixtures can be used to make excellent fruit tarts, but to my mind a clafoutis is a simple and rustic dessert that if toyed with too much stops being a clafoutis. I do make one important addition: melted butter. Butter not only flavors the clafoutis but, because it coats the particles of flour, makes the batter lighter and less starchy. I use whatever fruit is in season, but you should keep in mind that some fruits (red berries, peaches, nectarines) contain a large amount of water that’s released as they bake so that each piece of fruit is surrounded by a little puddle of liquid when the clafoutis comes out of the oven. As the clafoutis cools, this liquid is reabsorbed into the surrounding, now rather cakelike, batter. If you’re fussy, you can cook the fruit ahead of time and incorporate the liquid it releases into the batter before baking (although it may turn the batter a somewhat sickly pink).