Gluten-Free Cherry Clafouti

Cherries are in season and right now my family and I are obsessing over Cherry Clafouti (or Clafoutis if you are French). A clafouti is a flan-like dessert from the Limousin region of France that is traditionally made with black cherries, although any type of cherry can be used. The dessert can also be made with fruits other than cherries, but when using other fruits the dessert is then referred to as a flaugnarde. Anyway, we are positively obsessed and the dish is so incredibly simple to prepare that I’m sure we will be eating it all summer. It is a perfect dish to serve for breakfast or brunch, so it is definitely going into our holiday brunch rotation. I was inspired to make this particular dessert after reading My Domaine’s recent feature on Ali Larter’s cherry recipes. I absolutely love Ali Larter’s cookbook, Kitchen Revelry: A Year of Festive Menus from My Home to Yours, (you can read my post about the book here) so I thought that it would be worth trying any recipe that she put out and I am so glad that I did. Ali specializes in gourmet dishes that are both impressive and simple to prepare and this recipe is no exception. Cherry Clafouti is positively delicious and simple enough that the kid’s can help. I made some slight changes so that everyone in the family would be able to eat it (this meant going gluten-free) and it was a huge hit. It is one of those fantastic recipes that you can’t really mess up as it is very easily adaptable. Anyway I could go on and on but without further ado, here is the recipe:

Gluten-Free Cherry Clafouti

Adapted from this recipe by Ali Larter

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon almond extract
• 3 cups cherries, halved and pitted
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup gluten-free flour (I used this one by Cup4Cup)
• 1/3 cup almond meal
• Pinch of sea salt
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Halve the cherries and remove the puts. Place in a medium sized bowl pour 1 Tablespoon of almond extract over the fruit and gently toss fruit until covered. Set aside and allow to macerate while you mix remaining ingredients.
3. Place butter into a 10-inch cast iron pan and place in oven to melt
4. In a large bowl, whip together buttermilk, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour and salt until smooth (you can also do this in a blender).
5. Remove the hot pan from the oven and add your macerated cherries, spreading them evenly over the pan.
6. Pour better over the cherries and immediately return to oven.
7. Bake for 35 minutes at 375°F.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.**
9. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

**This dish is also good served straight out of the oven, topped with vanilla ice cream.