Minimally Invasive

from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Child, Bertholle, and Beck

I took a few liberties with the recipe, but minor ones. I used vanilla sugar for the clafoutis instead of vanilla extract and granulated sugar. Also, the recipe calls for cooking a thin layer of batter in the baking dish before adding the cherries and proceeding with the recipe, but I was too afraid of cracking the dish over the flame, so I skipped that step.

3 cups cherries, pitted or not
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar for topping
powdered sugar for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly butter a 7- to 8-cup baking dish or 1 1/2-inch deep pie dish.

Place cherries in buttered dish. In a blender, combine milk and almonds and blend until almonds are finely chopped. Add 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, almond and vanilla extracts, salt and flour, and blend at high speed for about a minute.

Pour batter over cherries, then top with remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. (I used less than the full amount because the batter tasted sweet enough to me. But I don’t like overly sweet desserts, so take that for what it’s worth.)

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle clafoutis with powdered sugar just before serving. Best served hot or still warm.

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