Food In The Fort

It’s Bastille Day and our book club is meeting in a few minutes to talk over Sarah Vowell’s Partly Cloudy Patriot. Catherine made patriotic jello, so I think we’ve got the book covered, but how can we not celebrate Bastille Day in some way? So I decided to make Cherry Clafouti, a wonderful rustic French custard cake.

In the oven it will rise way up, and then collapse back in on itself. Some dubious websites I’ve read seem to think that French peasant moms used to entertain their kids by, apparently, parking them in front of the oven to watch the rise and fall of the clafouti. Either 19th C. French children were way too easily amused or there’s something fishy about this story I think.

It’s terribly easy to make, assuming you have a soux chef to pit all those damn cherries for you. Just be sure to avoid my mistake and buy tart, dark cherries. I swear I reached into the bin with the dark cherries but when I went to make this the bag was clearly labeled “sweet cherries”. Also, gauging by how my clafouti came out, if your cherries are extra juicy, you’re probably going to want to add an extra 1/4 cup or so of flour. You’re just going to have to eyeball it, but then that’s the joy of rustic peasant dishes… it’s hard to screw them up too much.

I’ll let you know how everybody liked the clafouti (I love saying that word) later, but right now it’s time to go be literary.

Updated: Well, the clafouti was a huge hit. There was barely a spoonful left. An even bigger hit though was Catherine’s patriotic jello, which I’ll get to posting in a little bit.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon softened butter
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups dark cherries, preferably pitted

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Butter a 9″ X 9″ deep dish pie pan, square baking pan or something similar.
3. Whisk together all ingredients except the cherries
4. Pour about 3/4 of a cup of the batter in your prepared baking pan
5. Bake 2-5 minutes until the batter is just set
6. Arrange the cherries over the top of the hot batter
7. Pour the rest of the batter over the cherries
8. Bake 35 – 40 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and enjoy!

About the author:  Leo is a technologist and writer living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a transplant to the Mid West from Central New York and was promised cheaper gas and better winters. He feels somewhat lied to in this respect but otherwise finds the people pleasant. Read more from this author