Black cherry clafoutis is one of those iconic French summer desserts.

It’s a marriage of plump, ripe cherries swathed in a cloak of rich, baked custard.

Clafoutis is extremely quick and easy to prepare and make, taking about 40 minutes to in the oven to cook.

If this sounds like it’s off the scale in terms of calories, think again! I’ve used semi skimmed milk to cut calories, but keep the flavour and texture.

Here’s my recipe below

Black Cherry Clafoutis

I’ve made clafoutis with all sorts of fruits, but cherries are my favourite!

Serves 4

25g plain flour

2 medium eggs

50g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

125ml semi skimmed milk

250g fresh cherries, or enough to cover the bottom of your pan.

Butter and flour for dusting the pan

Caster or icing sugar for dusting the top of the clafoutis.

  1. Pre heat the oven to 190C/375F/ Gas5.
  2. Lightly butter a 20cm oven proof frying pan and dust with flour
  3. Mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence together, add the flour and salt. Beat well, then add the milk to make a smooth batter.
  4. Pour half the mixture into the bottom of the frying pan, add the cherries and pour over the remaining batter.
  5. Put the pan in the oven and cook for 40 minutes.
  6. Once ready, remove, allow to cool a little, then dust with caster or icing sugar.
  7. Serve with ice cream or cream. Watch out for the cherry stones!
A frying pan dusted with flour
A flour dusted frying pan with batter and cherries
An image of baked black cherry clafoutis
A flour dusted frying pan with a little batter in the bottom
An image of black cherry clafoutis ready for the oven
Black cherry clafoutis dusted with caster sugar
A portion of black cherry clafoutis served with ice cream