Cherry Clafoutis 2

Hooray for summer! This is cherry season and if we were living down in Kent at the moment, we'd be able to pick up paper bags full of them all over the place. The lay-byes are filled with cherry sellers plying their wares. Beautiful sweet cherries, warm from the sun. I never could get my fill!



But alas we are up in Cheshire now and you don't see cherry sellers up here, or at least I havent'. The cherries in the shops are very expensive as well, so cherries are a very rare treat . . . that is until today when I was at my local Morrisons and lo and behold they had these lovely Picota Cherries from Spain on for £1 a punnet! I picked up two and may go back and get more to freeze.



They are not British Cherries, nor are they French Cherries, and I had never heard of Picota Cherries before, but they are apparently the Queen of the beautiful Jerte Valley in Western Spain. They are only available for a short time . . . mid June until the end of July. They have two unique qualities . . . they are smaller than the other varieties and they are naturally stalkless as the stalk is left on the tree when each cherry is picked.



They have a nother beautiful quality I'd like to shout about . . . THEY'RE DELICIOUS! Yummy! I have eaten a whole punnet, without blinking an eye. I just couldn't stop! (I am so bad! But they are soooo good!)



I decided to make a Clafoutis with the remainder of them, using this recipe I found on the M&S site. I have adapted it to include North American measurements for you North Americans. It is some good. A little bit different from my other recipe which you can find here.



This one doesn't have any cream so it is a little bit less fattening. Oh scrummy yummy. I love me some Cherry Clafoutis!

*Cherry Clafoutis*

Serves 6
Printable Recipe

Juicy black cherries baked in a surround of sweetened batter. Delicious!

3 large free range eggs, with one egg separated

150g of plain flour (1.2 cups of flour)

100g of icing sugar (about 3/4 cup)

100ml of whole milk (1/3 cup)

1 tsp vanilla extract

butter for greasing the pan

300g of cherries stoned (about 2 cups)

25g of flaked almonds (1/4 cup)

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F gas mark 5. Lightly butter a shallow 10 inch baking dish. Set aside.

Place 2 of the eggs and one egg yolk in a large bowl. Sift in the flour and icing sugar. Add the milk and vanilla. Whisk together until well combined. Beat the remaining egg white until stiff. Fold this into the batter. Scatter the cherries over the bottom of the buttered baking dish. Pour the batter over top and sprinkle with the almonds.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the batter is just set. Remove from oven and cool to warm. Dust with icing sugar and serve.