You Grow Girl™

I have a longer post about my trip to Columbus, Ohio coming up but until then a station break about cherry season. It’s on! While I was away Davin went cherry picking just for me, bringing home a giant basket of fresh deliciousness. Picking that basket was preceded by a 13 km hike. What a guy.

Of course within a matter of days what initially felt like a windfall has dwindled in my minds eye. Need. More. Cherries. I stopped by one of our local farmers markets to grab a snack on the way home the other day. One of the farmers was selling baskets of cherries and even though I had that giant basket at home, I actually considered buying another. Or two. The only thing that held me back was the knowledge that our freezer is currently stuffed to the gills with frozen strawberries with not an inch of space left for anything more.

Note to self: Eat strawberries, stat.

In preparation for cherry season I have been dreaming about the things I will make when the time arrives. Now that it has, the pressure is on to use those precious cherries wisely. Last night I rolled out Cherry Season 2008 with a show stopping dish, Cherry Clafoutis aka Clafouti. If you’ve never had this French dessert it’s basically fresh fruit baked in an eggy, custard-like batter or pudding. I used this recipe as a starting point with a few revisions (I don’t think I have followed a recipe verbatim in my entire life). It was high on the egg side but very tasty. I substituted sugar with agave syrup and added a drop or two of amaretto extract because I didn’t have almond extract on hand. I thought about trying the recipe with almond milk but used the last of it in a smoothie made earlier that day. I did add little pats of butter and a sprinkling of maple sugar before broiling but to be honest I don’t think either was necessary and made the dish sweeter than I’d like.

All-in-all the clafoutis was REALLY good but I have my sights set on making one with a dough base. The base will add some additional weight to the dish and compliment the soft custard. If anyone has a recipe like that please share! I haven’t yet determined if I should cook the dough slightly before adding the custard or just plop it all in the dish. Either way I guess I’ll have a tasty time working it out.

If you haven’t made a dessert like this before and are intimidated, don’t be! Prep was done in a blender and took only a few minutes. From there the only stress was watching the oven to be sure it didn’t overcook on the bottom. And that’s what egg timers were made for.

You’ll love it!