Apricot and Cherry Clafoutis

I made clafoutis for the first time when I was in high school for a French food day in my French class. I had heard it was one of those quintessential French desserts and I thought everybody would enjoy trying something authentic. I made it with raspberries and dusted the finished product with powdered sugar. I was real proud. Well, when French period came everyone avoided my clafoutis and instead focused on the Nutella baguette that someone else had brought for a dessert. It made me really sad. I guess the Nutella was more familiar and it does contain chocolate. Anyway, that incident kept me away from making another clafoutis for a long time.

Clafoutis is a classic rustic French dessert made with eggs, a bit of flour, sugar, and fruit. Its texture is typically described as a cross between a pancake and a custard--the sides are kind of light and fluffy but the middle is dense and eggy. Clafoutis probably isn't for everyone, but if you appreciate these textures, it's a treat, especially when it's made with good fruit.

Seeing all the stone fruit that's in season right now got me thinking about clafoutis again. So before I left Vienna I decided to make a pair of clafoutis for a dinner party. I located a recipe, and thought about what fruit I'd use. Classic clafoutis are made with cherries, but I wanted to try apricot as well since I love them baked into cakes and they were in season. I kept hoping that my latest attempt at clafoutis would get a better reception than last time.

Well, my clafoutis was the only dessert option this time, but I can report that most people had seconds. I thought the apricot was especially good, and very pretty. The cherry was nice too, but the cherries were so ripe and juicy that the cherry clafoutis was much more moist and didn't look as pretty because the wet cherries absorbed all the powdered sugar I attempted to shake on top. I guess I might recommend using a less juicy fruit.