Cherry clafoutis

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 1 clafoutis, you will need:

• 1 1 kg cherries
• 2 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 3 3 tablespoons Kirsch
• 4 500 g Clafoutis batter
• 5 1 tablespoon Kirsch (optional)
• Total weight: 1,590 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
33 min.	44 min.	1 hour 17 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Wash, dry and remove the stalks from 1 kg cherries.
2	Tip the cherries into a pan on medium heat and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons caster sugar, then add 3 tablespoons Kirsch. Cover and leave to cook for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring regularly, until the cherries are tender.
3	Drain them in a sieve and leave to cool. Note: The cherry juice will not be used to make the batter; see below for ideas on how to use it.
4	Meanwhile, prepare 500 g Clafoutis batter and add 1 tablespoon Kirsch. Blend together and leave to stand. Preheat oven to 210°C (420°F).
5	Then remove the pits from the cherries with a small sharp knife, and as you go, place them in the bottom of a buttered gratin dish.
6	Pour the batter over the cherries, leaving the tops of the cherries just visible.
7	Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes, until the clafoutis is golden brown. Serve warm or cold.

Remarks

As stated above, the juice that comes out of the cherries during cooking is not added to the batter, but you can reheat this to serve with the clafoutis, leaving your guests to pour it over. You can also add it to whipped cream to make a cherry chantilly.
An interesting variation: leave out half the flour and replace it with chestnut flour or ground almonds.
Cherry stones: should you leave them in or not? I've discussed this at length with Isabelle (my favourite sister) and there's no easy answer. Personally, I hate eating a clafoutis with the stones in - I'm always worried I'll break a tooth. You need to be very careful when eating it!
Untl recently I thought that leaving the stones in improved the flavour, but I ended up trying a clfoutis with stones and one without, and... no noticeable difference.
I think the Kirsch adds the subtle flavour of cherry stones, and this is better than leaving in the stones themselves. If you really want to keep the taste, you can try the following: bring the milk to the boil with the crushed cherry stones. Leave to infuse for 15 minutes, then strain and continue the recipe as normal.

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