I fell in love with Clafoutis a few months ago and vowed to create a recipe that matched the one I had in Norfolk. It’s a French dessert made with a custard (or batter mix to you and me) which is baked in a really hot oven until all puffed up.

There’s a lot of talk on-line about whether you should bake a traditional Clafoutis with fresh cherries that still have their stones in or whether the stones should be removed. I have tried it both ways and do think that it tastes better when the stones are left in. The cherries get so soft that they are easy to remove when you eat a slice.

It’s a really quick and easy dessert to make. Every recipe I tried said it is best served warm straight from the oven. It does taste good then, but I had some the next day which I warmed through in the microwave for 20 seconds and it was even better. Let me know what you think.

Cherry Clafoutis recipe

Clafoutis ingredients

50ml Kirsch

150g Fresh cherries (or tinned if they’re out of season)

300ml milk

55g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tea spoon Vanilla essence

75g Plain flour

10g butter

icing sugar to dust

How to make Cherry Clafoutis

I used fresh cherries but you can use tinned ones or other fruits too. Soak the cherries overnight in the Kirsch. You can soak them for a couple of hours but the taste is so much better when they are really infused.

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Mix the wet ingredients together then add the dry. Whisk it up so it’s light and fluffy. Add any Kirsch that hasn’t been absorbed into the cherries into the mix. You can blend the ingredients together in a food processor, but I did it by hand. It only takes a couple of minutes and saves on the washing up.

After 10 minutes remove the dish, add the cherries and the remaining batter. Put back into the oven and bake for a further 40 minutes. When it is done it will be all puffed up at the edges and lovely and brown.

Remove from the oven and sieve icing sugar all over the top. Slice up and serve warm with or without cream. If you want to make this recipe even richer you can swap half the milk for double cream.