High Altitude Clafoutis Adventure

For the most part, this summer has felt like spring, and not in the full-of-flowers way. Unseasonably cool and rainy weather. Constant construction. A head cold. You’ve probably been there.

No better time to revisit a recipe that originally caused me grief at the start, but has since become part of our regular warmer weather rotation: the French classic clafoutis. Or clafouti. Let’s not be pedantic.

I’d never even eaten clafoutis before trying to make it in my previous Boulder kitchen, a rental with a stove labeled “Conservator by Crosley.” The oven ran hot. A now-forgotten magazine article featured a glorious photo of the baked dessert in a cast iron pan dotted with raspberries sprinkled with powdered sugar. All I knew is that the final result was supposed to have a custardy middle.

Food52 called it “a cross between a flan and a tart” and “one of the simplest French pastries to make.” Epicurious said Julia Child’s berry clafoutis could be “made while the rest of the dinner is in the oven.” But the recipe I used didn’t have much substance. It was a giant sad pancake: all brown puffiness.

My second attempt, using a different recipe, seemed closer but the balance was still off. The results were approaching what all these sites promised so I decided to keep trying. Saveur put me on the right path.

Instead of the kirsch, I went crazy with the almond, adding almond extract and amaretto liqueur. Dusting the dessert with confectioners’ sugar each time I wanted some got old fast, especially since it tastes so much better after being refrigerated. My solution was to increase the sugar by 1 tablespoon and skip the powdered sugar at the end.

The satisfying result was too tasty to keep to myself so I invited Mom to test it out at sea level. She thought the cherry clafoutis was good, but wasn’t sure she’d make it again, being more inclined to bake pie, cobbler, or our family recipe for make-ahead French toast. Ah well. The upshot was that she ended up with a handy dandy cherry pitter.

Over the past couple years I’ve made clafoutis with different cherry varieties, strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries, and discovered that tart fruit works best. You want a contrast to the mellow custardy interior. Using super-sweet cherries or perfectly ripe mid-summer berries doesn’t do the trick.

Below are instructions for cherries as well as rhubarb, which goes nicely with some strawberry slices. Be careful not to add too much fruit to the dish or the water released will mess with the texture and bake time.

Pick-a-Fruit Clafoutis

1 Tbsp. butter, softened
1¼ C. milk
7 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. almond extract or amaretto liqueur (or 1 Tbsp. of each)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
6 eggs
Pinch of salt
¾ C. flour
~2 C. fresh tart cherries, pitted and halved OR roasted rhubarb with fresh strawberry slices (see notes below)

Oven at 350°F.

Place a large baking sheet covered in foil on the lower rack to catch any drips.

Cherries: Determine how many cherries are needed by placing enough whole cherries into a high-sided oval baking dish to mostly cover the bottom. Remove the optimal amount, rinse and dry the pan, then rinse, pit, and halve the cherries. I use a roughly 11-inch long oval stoneware dish.

Rhubarb: Dice 2 stalks of fresh rhubarb and combine them with 2 tablespoons of white sugar in a glass mixing bowl. Let sit it for about 5 to 10 minutes. Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter your clafoutis dish and spread the rhubarb across the bottom. Roast, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until soft. Allow to cool slightly before adding custard to the dish. You can toss in several sliced strawberries, too.

For cherries and berries, grease the baking dish with butter.

Break eggs into a bowl and remove any shell pieces. Combine milk, sugar, almond extract, vanilla, eggs, and salt in a blender pitcher. Blend for a few seconds to mix the ingredients. Now add the flour and blend until smooth, about 1 minute.

Gently pour the batter into the baking dish. Bake on the middle rack until a skewer inserted into batter comes out clean and a golden brown crust has formed on top and bottom of the clafoutis, about one hour.

Start checking the dessert after 40 minutes. It’ll begin puffing up. If the top begins to brown too fast, cover it with tented aluminum foil, shiny side up. Test with a toothpick to make sure the custard is set before removing it from the oven to cool. Keep the foil off while it cools to avoid condensation. Deflation is expected.

This dessert tastes best after it has been refrigerated.