June is Cherry Season in California and they are plentiful indeed!  All the Markets are featuring them and they are readily available at your local Farmer’s Market where you know they have recently been picked – no shipping, no mishandling – just great fresh Cherries.  Both Bing and Ranier are available but for today’s recipe we are using Bing.  Bing provide much more color and flavor and are perfect for baking.

If you are lucky enough to be close to Cherry Orchards (we used to go to Cherry Valley in Beaumont) to pick Cherries when I was growing up and I won’t tell you what the price was then – you would flip as you compare it to what we are paying today.  When my sons were young we went to Leona Valley which is North of the Conjeo – prices were still good then as compared to today.  One of the great things about taking your children to pick Cherries is that (at least when we did it) the owners said you could eat what you want as you were picking them.  Don’t worry – it didn’t hurt the farmers as you can only eat so many as you are picking.

To make the Cherry Clafoutis, you have to pit the Cherries.  When I was growing my Mother and I used to use a darning needle to push the pits out of the Cherries.  You can imagine how long that took.  Today you can buy Cherry Pitters to help you do the job.  I have one that pits the Cherries one at a time and one that does it in multiples.  The one that does it in multiples is from Germany and does a great job, but you do have to sort through the pitted Cherries to make sure that all the pits were removed.  it is easy for one or two to get through the chute without having their pits removed.  There are multiple Cherry Pitters available at Amazon – enough to confuse you about which one to buy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recipe for the Cherry Clafoutis is available at ‘Bake from Scratch’.  Just click on the previous ‘Cherry Clafoutis’ and you will get there.

I used to teach this recipe to my International Food Classes – there are a few differences between the one I used and this one.  I think that I prefer this one more because I love Cream and this is what this one uses.  My old recipe used Milk and this one uses Cream.  In addition, my old recipe just had you putting the Cherries on the bottom of the pan and this one has you baking a thin layer of the Custard before adding the Cherries.  This makes it much easier to serve and get those luscious cherries on each serving.

One you get the Cherries pitted, it is quick and easy to make – the Clafoutis is best served warm but it can also be served cold.  We like it with Whipped Cream but Ice Cream is good too or you can just serve it as is.

When you read the recipe you will be amazed that originally the pits were left in the Cherries – you can imagine what eating it must have been like!  The reason that the pits were left was for the flavor but today the flavor of the pits is replaced with Almond Flavoring.  The reason for this is that Almonds, Peaches and Cherries all have similar flavor characteristics.  Just compare a Peach Pit with an Almond and you will see the similarity.  I know a Cherry Pit does not look like an Almond or a Peach but the flavor profile is very similar.

 

BELOW ARE PHOTOS OF THE PREPARATION PROCESS: