The Cherry Goodie That's Easy to Make, Fun to Say

Cherry season is well under way. I love this time of year, when locally harvested summer berries appear in the grocery store with a generous price slash (ah, the economics of abundance). I buy cherries weekly, and enjoy the proverbial bowl while I work.

But I feel these balls of pep deserve something more than hand-to-mouth, a more romantic preparation that adequately conveys my cherry-love.

While in culinary school, I was taught a dish called clafouti (pronounced: cla-foo-TEE). The dish stayed with me because it was fun to say, and almost guiltily easy to make, unlike most of what I learned in my pastry program.

The dish is from Limoges, France, and locals consider it a proper clafouti only when made with fresh cherries. To take it a step further, purists insist on using cherries with their pits still inside, as the pits are said to contribute flavor.

Flavor, shmavor -- by keeping the pits in, I just saved 15 minutes of prep time.

Plus, by leaving the cherries whole, the berries swell and plump as the clafouti cooks, scarlet balls rising from a sea of yellow custard. As one who delights in finding the bay leaf in her winter stew (it's good luck!), and chicken bone in a tamale (thank goodness, it's actual chicken), I enjoy finding a pit in my pie.

Clafouti has an unusual texture, something between a custard and a baked pancake. The batter is a combination of ingredients you probably already in the fridge, spun in a blender and poured over a skillet full of cherries. As the dish cooks, it gets golden and puffy -- you'll feel proud removing it from the oven.

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