Cherry Chocolate Clafouti

This is my first time making clafouti, a baked French fruit dessert. Inspiration came from a recipe in this book. The end result is a custard-y pudding-like substance, studded with giant sweet cherries and chocolate morsels. It's great as dessert, topped with vanilla ice cream, or as breakfast, along with some coffee.

For the cherries, I used a mixture of dark sweet ones and red/yellow ones that are also very large, fleshy and sweet. Don't use the tart ones for this recipe. I pit my cherries with a fork by poking one of the prongs into the middle top part of the fruit, and then kind of scooping up to pop out the pit. It's effective, but makes a total mess. Do NOT wear nice clothes!

Make sure to sift the flour into the cream and milk mixture very slowly. If you don't, you'll end up with a gummy mess. Go slow to maintain a liquid-like texture. This is what it should look like before it goes into the oven.

The Recipe

makes 12 medium-sized pieces

butter for greasing pan
2 cups pitted sweet cherries
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used about half dark and half semi-sweet)
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
powdered sugar for sifting on top

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Butter a 9x13-inch baking pan. Arrange pitted cherries in bottom. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and set aside.

In medium-sized saucepan, heat cream and milk over low to medium heat until little bubbles/froth forms along the edges. Remove from heat and vigorously whisk in the flour (sifted) SLOWLY. Set aside to cool.

Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until creamy. Add milk mixture once it has cooled a little. Dump over cherries and chocolate. Place pan on a baking sheet and bake bake for about 45-55 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.