Clafoutis and Raspberry Jam

I honestly did not think I would get to post this today. Work has been insane. But in a good way, I'm really pumped. I wish I had time to go home and cook today!

Yesterday I made my first French dessert from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a Clafouti. Translated: Cherry Flan. I purchased about 4 1/2 pounds of cherries from Sam's as well as one of the greatest kitchen gadgets ever created, a cherry pitter. It was worth the $10 I spent, let me tell you. My mom pitted cherries for a pie without a pitter and she said her hands were stained for weeks. My hands? No stains. And boy was that thing fun to use! You just press the spike through the cherry and the pit spits out the bottom. I did have to be careful for splattering juice that even the protective shield on the pitter couldn't completely stop. My book is now "used".

Anyways, enough about gadgets, you are here to read about food not the objects that help create said food! The Clafouti (cherry flan) was easy to make. You pit 3 cups of cherries and lay them in the bottom of a pie plate or 7-8 cup dish. I used my corning ware, 2 1/2 qt. round dish. That seemed to work nicely. So you place these cherries in the bottom of the dish and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of sugar. Then in a blender you put milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and flour. It ends up looking like a kind of pancake batter.

You pour the "batter" over the cherries sprinkled with sugar and stick it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. I say about because I think mine took a little longer then that. I say I think because mine was overdone. It was very tasty, just chewier then it should have been. The problem was in how Julia explains what the flan should look like. It should be puffed up and I was under the impression that puffed up would be, well, puffed up. It did rise slightly (as my husband pointed out, "it looks puffed up a little, see?") but not as much as I would have thought. Plus the cherries rose to the top and it seemed like that would be wrong too. A picture would have been nice. But when I took it out of the oven and it started to cool it did sink like the cookbook said it would. So I thought I must have done it right.

Anyways, the fact that it hadn't puffed and it was still kind of jiggly had me second guessing myself as well as the toothpicks I kept jamming in to see if they would come out clean. Therefore, when I scooped it out the bottom had taken on a caramel kind of color and was chewy. It was still delicious but I know it would be better if not overdone. And cold, I like my custard/flans cold. Julia says it tastes best warm but I think cold would be better. We will see tonight. And I will update you all (reader? I don't even think I have that) tomorrow.

A lady I work with is French, and I mentioned to her how I had bought Julia's book. She said she has it and its hard. That scared me a little. But no matter, I press on. I mentioned to her last week that I would be making the Clafouti this weekend and lo and behold this morning she had put a copy of the recipe she uses on my desk. (By the way, it had a picture and mine, looked the same as the picture)

When I talked to her about it she said she makes them all the time. They are her favourite. Julia puts a thin layer of "batter" on the bottom of the dish and cooks it on the stove top, then tops with cherries and the rest of the "batter". Since I don't think its the best idea to put my corning ware on the stove top, I took my co-workers suggestion and did it her way. No bottom layer, just pour the "batter" over the top. Besides that difference, the only other differences in her recipe and Julia's is whats in the "batter". Less milk but with the addition of cream, sugar (same), different amount of flour, instead of 3 whole eggs - two eggs and one yolk, less vanilla, same amount of cherries. I'll be trying this one next seeing as I bought so many cherries at Sam's.

Looks like I won't have time for Raspberry Jam after all, I will continue this tomorrow.