Ingredients

• Clafoutis (pronunciation: ​klafuti; is a baked French dessert originating in the Limousin region in south west France, of fruit, traditionally black cherries arranged in a buttered dish immersed in a thick egg and milk batter. The clafoutis is dusted with icing sugar and served lukewarm, sometimes with cream I also like it with creme fraiche. There are several variations using other fruits, including red cherries, plums, apples, pears or blackberries. When other kinds of fruit are used instead of cherries, the dish is called a flaugnarde. In some versions the cherries are not pitted.
• I like to cook the cherries a bit before I use them which is not traditional but I find cherries do not cook and distribute flavours as fast as pears or blackberries and cooking them adds more jammy flavour to a tart thats otherwise mostly batter.
• USA and Turkey are major producers of sweet and sour cherries. India’s crop is mostly sweet and comes from Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir (more expensive). The flavours and colour vary dramatically even by the box. White Heart, Black Republican, Early Rivers from Himachal and Black Heart and Early Purple are names that are not familiar to most of us because even though India grows nearly 100 varieties, we almost have never seen more than a couple in Mumbai’s markets.
• FOR TART PAN
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• FOR BATTER
• 1/4 cup granulated (fine) white sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1.5 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tbsp cherry or orange liqueur of your choice
• FOR CHERRIES
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 18 red ripe cherries, washed, dried and stalks removed
• TO GARNISH (OPTIONAL)
• Confectioners' sugar
• Whipped cream or creme fraiche
• 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp sugar to dust the sides of the baking pan