1,517 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Cherry clafoutis, with or without pits?

When it comes to cherry clafoutis recipes, there's often a camp of those who argue that you absolutely have to leave the stones in because it tastes better, and the other camp (myself included) who prefer cherries without stones, which makes a much more pleasant clafoutis to eat.

But is it true that cherry pits enhance the taste? Let's find out.

3,258 5/5 (1 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Clafoutis Dough Appliance Cherries Pits Taste Experiment Test Kirsch Comparison

Last modified on: June 29^th 2025

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Cherry clafoutis, with or without pits?

How to make it?

Making a clafoutis with pits one day, and without pits the next, doesn't really allow you to compare: you'll have more of a memory of the first when you make the second, than of its true taste.
The simplest "method" I've found is to make 2 (small) clafoutis with the same recipe, putting pitted cherries in one and pitted cherries in the other, and tasting one then the other, for immediate comparison.

The 2 clafoutis

So I made 500g of clafoutis dough, and 600g of washed and dried cherries.

molds filled with cherries with and without pits

In 2 small molds, I placed the same quantity of whole cherries (300 gr) in one, and pitted cherries in the other.

In the 2 molds, I poured the same amount of clafoutis batter (250 gr).

And then off to the oven to bake.

How did it turn out?

We tasted them, lukewarm, and with several people, to try and get different opinions.

on goute clafoutis cerise dénoyautées on goute clafoutis cerise entières

The result is that, objectively speaking, the difference in taste between clafoutis with and without pits is not at all marked.
However, we did notice that, in the case of pitted cherries, there's a small, very interesting acidity, which is present in the heart of the whole cherries, and not in the pitted ones.

In fact, I'm afraid we're a little influenced by the color and appearance of the clafoutis: you can see the one with pits, and when you taste it, you think you'll find a difference, which is (in my opinion) a little overrated.
But, as always with taste, there's no arguing with it, and you'll probably have to repeat the experience to make up your own mind.
If you're really looking for that "cherry-stone taste", I'd recommend pouring 1 or 2 tablespoons of Kirsch into the clafoutis batter.

In summary: For cherry clafoutis, leaving or removing the pits during cooking changes the taste very little, if at all.

Lasts posts

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20253,431

The grease spray

As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26^th 20255,0085

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20255,2755

Thinning out herbs

If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8^th 20253,4935

Add a bay leaf

Bay leaf: small in size, but big in flavor. You'll find it in hundreds of recipes, and it's often added to cooking meat, in a sauce or broth, usually accompanied by other herbs or products. It's a staple of Provençal, Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine, but not the only one. Usually, in a...
July 31^th 20253,6025

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

The importance of sieving

The window-pane test in bread-making

The home bread-makers often ask themselves “Have I kneaded my dough long enough?” . A good question, as dough that is insufficiently kneaded will not rise properly or will fall flat when the top is slashed, which is very frustrating. To know when the dough is ready, one can rely on the length...
June 16^th 202195 K 23.9

The Holy Grail of French bakers

While browsing through the recipes on this site, you may have noticed that while I adore cooking (everything, in fact, to do with eating and drinking), I am particularly drawn to bakery: bread, viennoiseries and all that goes with them – it’s a real passion of mine; I love making them and I...
March 24^th 201819 K 34.7

85 grams of eggs?

Some time ago, I already spoke to you about the difference between baking and pastry-making, I emphasized, among other things, the precision of pastry-making which requires grams, cm, degrees and minutes. That's why, on the one hand, you have baking and cooking, where a certain tolerance is...
November 26^th 201855 K4.6

The 3 secrets of Parisian flan

A flan Parisien, or boulanger, is a simple yet delicious cake. A cream, a mixture of milk, eggs and sugar, is poured into a raw pastry base and baked in the oven until the pastry and cream are cooked. This is the simplest version of the recipe, probably the original one, but nowadays the cream...
July 21^th 202314 K4.7