Clafouti-licious

A couple of weeks ago, I can across a recipe for CLAFOUTI on Design*Sponge. A French dish with a great name that could be assembled in a blender: what more could a busy gourmand want. I knew instantly that I had to add the clafouti to my repertoire of puffy custardy pancake-esque dishes that could be served either for a brunch or at afternoon tea.

The original recipe courtesy of Karen Combs at nama rococo:

PLUM CLAFOUTI

Ingredients:
-4 or 5 fresh PLUMS, pitted and sliced (about 3 cups)

for the batter:
-2 eggs
-2 egg whites
-1 cup buttermilk (235ml)
-3/4 cup unbleached white flour (95g)
-1/2 cup sugar (100g)
-1/2 teaspoon fresh-grated lemon peel (5g)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180C)
2. Butter a 9" or 10" non-reactive pie pan. Loosely arrange the sliced plums on the bottom of the pan.
3. Put ALL of the ingredients for the batter into a blender and whirl until smooth. Pour the batter over the fruit in the baking dish, and bake at 350 degrees (180C) for 45 – 50 minutes or until the clafouti is puffed and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Cool for a few minutes before slicing into servings. This tastes especially great if you can eat it while it’s still a bit warm from the oven.

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Since plums are not in season, I decided to try frozen sweet cherries (a 16 oz. bag). They worked like a charm and didn't require any pitting or slicing. Since I was too disorganized to thaw the cherries in advance, I just threw them right from the freezer into the batter. This definitely added to the cooking time and I nearly swooned in anticipation when the clafouti-licious aroma wafted through my kitchen, but it was totally worth the wait. I served the clafouti slices with some lightly sweetened whole milk yogurt to which I added some leftover lemon zest: a match made in heaven and a work of culinary inspiration, if I do say so myself.