Somehow I managed to live most of my life without ever knowing about this amazing treat. My friend who now lives in New Mexico made it for me on one of her visits. It was served warm and the cooked cherries and baked eggs seemed such a strange combination but both were so delicious. All I knew was that it was French and we laughed over our attempts to pronounce it properly.

A clafoutis (cla-foodie) is a variation of an egg custard dish. Taking the recipe my friend gave me, I tweaked it a bit, predominantly by ingredient choices, but also accidently by portions. The result I find more remnant to Asian custards that are a bit firmer, which is how I like them. I also find they travel really well because of the firmness, so they make a great summer picnic or potluck gifts.

I like to use fresh cherries vs frozen ones. This limits me to only being able to make these during the summer when the fresh cherries are around. I’ve the luxury of owning a cherry pitter which makes all the difference.

You can also soak the cherries in alcohol as the traditional French recipes lists. Usually a brandy is used, ie Kirsch, or even Grand Marnier. I tried a non-alcoholic alternative using pomegranate juice. It did make the cherries pop more, but it can also add blotchy coloring to the clafoutis.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 24 cherries pitted
• 1/ 2 cup of non-fat yogurt – Greek or other
• 1/2 cup of almond milk – Vanilla – Unsweetened
• 1/2 cup of erythritol with monkfruit
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
• 1 tablespoons of olive oil – or grapeseed oil
• 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon of lime rind/zest – or other citrus rind
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Make sure all of the cherries are pitted and de-stemmed, yet still in one piece if possible.

In a mixing bowl, blend together all of the ingredients except the cherries & the lime rind. You can use either a hand beater or electric beater. Once all the ingredients are blended to a consistent smooth texture, add in the line zest and blend evenly by hand.

Into bakeable cupcake cups, place 2 cherries each. Then pour in the batter about 1 inch deep.

Place the cupcakes on aluminum foil in the oven on a middle shelf.

Bake for 30 mins. (This recipe uses bakeable rubber cupcake cups. Metal or paper bakeable cupcake cups may change the baking times.)

To enjoy you can either wait for them to cool or enjoy while still warm.

The same batter will fill a 9″ pie pan however many more cherries will be needed. The calorie count above is based on a cupcake serving, not a pie slice that may have alot more cherries.

When placing the cherries in the pan, make sure they’re nestled tighly as shown above, unlike below. If left loose they will relocate unpredictably after baking.