The famous cherry dessert from south central France! This Cherry Clafoutis recipe features plump, juicy, sweet cherries that are enveloped in a rich batter and baked until golden brown with a texture that’s a cross between a cake and custard. It’s pure heaven!
What is Cherry Clafoutis?
Pronounced “cla-foo-tee” (also spelled clafouti in the English speaking world because of the silent “s”), clafoutis is a rustic fruit-studded dessert baked with an egg-rich batter until golden-brown on top. Its texture is something between a cake and custard.
The name clafoutis comes from the Occitan verb clafir, which means “to fill”, as in pouring the batter into the baking dish). It’s traditionally made with black cherries (and purists maintain that it should only be made with black cherries otherwise it’s technically a flognarde), but other variations nonetheless exist including with plums, nectarines, apricots, blackberries, raspberries, cranberries, apples and pears.
Traditionally the dessert is made with un-pitted cherries as the pits contain amygdaline (the same active chemical found in almond extract) that has a subtle almond flavor that is infused into the batter as it bakes. In order to avoid that unfortunate visit to the dentist we recommend pitting the cherries and using pure almond extract instead.
Clafoutis originated in the Limousin region of central France where its popularity peaked in the 19th century (though its origin may be much earlier) and soon spread throughout the whole country. It remains one of France’s most famous desserts.
Château de Rochechouart, France
Limoges, France
Cherry Clafoutis Recipe
One of the things I love most about this dessert is how incredibly easy it is to make. If I were to publish a cookbook for kids, clafoutis would be in it!
- Butter a baking dish and fill it with cherries
- Place the milk, cream, eggs, flour, sugar, butter, salt, vanilla extract, and almond extract in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the batter over the cherries.
- Bake until the top is a rich golden brown and the top is firm but the clafoutis jiggles when you gently shake the pan. Let it cool for a few minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve warm by itself or with some whipped cream or vanilla custard.
That’s it! Dessert couldn’t be any simpler.
The only thing that will take a little practice is getting the timing right on how long to bake it. This also comes down to personal preference, but clafoutis should be fairly firm to the touch but jiggly when you gently shake the pan. Over-baked you’ll have a chewy-eggy textured cake. Under-baked and you’ll have cherries floating in pudding. Baked just right you’ll make Goldilocks happy with a texture that is a cross between cake and custard.
To summarize with pictures:
Place all of the ingredients, except for the cherries, in a blender and blend until smooth. Poor the mixture over the cherries in a buttered casserole dish.
Bake it until the top is a rich golden brown and the top is firm jiggles when you gently it. I love the texture of clafoutis, a cross between cake and creamy custard.
Let it cool for a few minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Serve warm by itself or, even better, with some whipped cream or our homemade vanilla custard.
Enjoy!
For more delicious French goodies try our:
- French Almond Plum Cake
- Pot de Creme
- French Almond Cake with Lavender Lemon Glaze
- Blackberry Clafoutis
- Nonnettes
Cherry Clafoutis
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 large eggs , room temperature
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 teaspoon quality pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon quality pure almond extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups cherries , pitted (fresh or frozen; if frozen thaw and drain completely)
- powdered (confectioner's) sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 1 1/2 quart baking dish.Place the cherries in the bottom of the baking dish.Put all remaining ingredients (except for the powdered sugar) in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the batter over the cherries, place the baking dish on the middle oven rack, and bake for 30-40 minutes until the top is a rich golden brown, the clafoutis is set but still slightly jiggly. Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla custard.
Video
Nutrition
Originally published on The Daring Gourmet July 3, 2020
patricia salada says
Are you using sour cherries or bing cherries?
Kimberly Killebrew says
Hi Patricia, I’m using bing cherries.
Rhonda C says
This may be obvious to most but I just wanted to ask to be sure. Are you using the melted butter in the blender with the other ingredients and additional butter for the baking dish or are you using the melted butter to butter the dish? Thanks!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Rhonda, the butter goes in with all the other ingredients. You’ll butter the baking dish separately. Happy baking!
Elaine Cummings says
I have a cherry tree and I pitted and froze bags of delicious cherries. Do I have to defrost the cherries before I use them for this recipe?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Elaine, yes you should defrost and drain them otherwise your clafoutis will be wet and soggy.
Teresa says
Can I use cherry pie filling? If not which type of fresh cherries should I use? Looks wonderful!
Lucille Yuen says
The Clafouti is delicious and easy to make! I served it for my guests with vanilla ice cream. I needed frozen cherries to make this dish, but there was none to be found anywhere. There were fresh cherries at the store, but I’d had to pit the cherries by hand and make a mess, so I opted for a blueberry, raspberry and cherry frozen mix. It was fine! Thanks for this great recipe!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
So awesome, Lucille, thank you!
Rob Matzak says
Hi Kimberly, after trying a 4th new recipe of yours (Cherry Clafoutis) I’d just like to say Thank You. All of your recipes never fail and are absolutely delicious. My wife is amazed how I’ve managed to become a master chef ! LOL
Anyway keep up the great work.
BTW .. being English I need to convert some of your recipes to metric. Please could you let me know whether your Fahrenheit number is for a forced Convection oven (i.e. Fan Assisted) or a Conventional Oven (i.e. not Fan Assisted). I have a forced Convection Fan Assisted oven and need to convert the heat setting to Celsius (without over cooking the food)
Many thanks.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
That’s just awesome, Rob, I’m so happy to hear that, thank you! The temperature given is always for conventional unless otherwise specified. I have a convection oven but usually only use the convection setting when I’m roasting meats and vegetables and a few other exceptions. Conventional is generally recommended for most baking so if you’re able to turn the fan off I would recommend doing that.
Jennifer Duncan says
Looks absolutely gorgeous. Cherries have such a short season in South Africa and I was wondering whether I could try this with tinned or bottled cherries? I guess the moisture is the issue so any frozen or tinned fruit would have to be really well drained? (I might answered my own question!).
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Jennifer, yes that’s exactly right, just make sure they’re well drained. Happy cooking! :)
Harriet says
Oh, this looks so good, I’ve never had cherry clafoutis before. I will definetly make this when cherries are in season.
Brenda Taylor Johnson says
This dessert was really different and very tasty! I used an OXO cherry pit remover which did a great job removing the pits. The taste was like a creamy custard flan with cherries. Nothing like a fruit cobbler. I used half/half because our grocery stores has not had heavy cream lately. I preferred the heavy cream for the rich flavor and hopefully next time I will be able to make this dessert as written. This was a great change in fruit desserts for us and we enjoyed the custard texture with the cherries. Great recipe and a keeper!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Brenda, thank you!
Dee says
Can you use half and half instead of cream? Cut down on the fat a little.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
You bet, Dee! Happy baking!
Addie says
Hello – I have a general question about your site. On your home page where it says “search this website”, it doesn’t go anywhere. For example, I put in Cherry Clafoutis, and it came back with “Sorry, no content matched your criteria”. I’ve tried with other of your recipes with the same result. The only way I’ve been able to find a particular recipe is to pick a recipe category and go through them all until I come across it. Can you explain this for me?
Thank you,
Addie
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Addie, I have no idea! I just tried it out on desktop (using Chrome) and on my iPhone and it’s working fine for me. You’re the only person that’s mentioned having this issue so I’m thinking it must be something with your device or software, I’m not sure what though….
Addie says
Hm-m-m, interesting, and confusing! I use Safari and don’t have this issue with any other site. I haven’t tried it on my iPhone so I’ll do that next. Thanks for getting back to me!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
That is really strange, Addie – and frustrating! Let us know if you’re having the same issue when you use your iPhone!