Cherry & Coconut Clafoutis, or a few words about inspiration

Today was the day of the clafoutis.

To make it, I got an inspiration from the cherry contest I read about at http://www.food52.com. This recipe is my slight modification of this recipe submitted to the contest (Thank you, thank you!) and the recipe from The Food of France, which points out that traditionally the clafoutis should be prepared with unpitted cherries. So, I used unpitted cherries, and we liked it a lot! This clafoutis was our main dinner meal today – I think such a good desert is worth to rule the dinner in solo, considering calories and nutrients it provides. Next time, I want to try the same recipe without coconut to see the difference.

This clafoutis is moderately sweet despite very sweet cherries and sweetened coconut; therefore, if someone likes really sweet pies, more sugar can be added or whipped cream can be prepared with sugar.

I provide ingredients in both cups and grams, because I like to use grams when I mix ingredients in the large bowl instead of using a new cup for each ingredient: I just place the bowl on the scale and add ingredients when needed resetting the scale to zero.

Ingredients:

· ½ cup (120 g) whole milk

· ½ cup (120 g) heavy cream

· ¼ cup (50 g) sugar

· a pinch of salt

· 1 vanilla pod (or ¼ tsp vanilla extract)

· 3 eggs

· 2/3 cup (85 g) all purpose flour

· 1 lb (500 g) large sweet cherries, unpitted

· 50 g sweetened coconut (from Vons or Ralph's) or unsweetened (from Jimbo's or Whole Foods)

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC.
2. Place the cherries into the baking dish (they will cover in one row the bottom of the 8-9 inch oval or round baking dish).
3. In a medium saucepan, heat slightly the cream, salt, and vanilla pod splited in two. Remove from the heat, add milk, and remove vanilla pod.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with sugar, using the electrical mixer. Add flour and continue mixing with the mixer. Then add the cream and coconuts, mixing constantly.
5. Pour the warm custard over the cherries. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until golden on top. (To make sure that the pie is ready, use a knife to stick inside, if the knife goes out clean, then the pie is ready. It is OK to open the oven and even remove the pie from it, and if it is not ready yet, to put it back in the oven.)
6. Serve warm with whipped heavy cream. Remember about the cherries pits!

Another book, Culinaria France, suggests using 5 eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and 1 cup milk (not a mixture of milk and cream); no coconut and unpitted cherries, of course, and 75 g sugar; the amounts of all other ingredients are the same as in my recipe.

If you use unsweetened coconuts, then a little bit more sugar can be used (60-70 g instead of 50 g).