Slow cooker cherry clafoutis recipe

Clafoutis is a yummy French pudding which you can make with various fruits, especially plums, but the most famous version is with cherries.

Fresh cherries aren't something I'd typically buy in January but when I see that little orange Reduced sticker, temptation sometimes takes over and I already had in mind to cook this.

I used and adapted a recipe from the excellent Katie Bishop book "Slow Cooking - Easy slow cooker recipes" but, although I love  her recipes, this one needed a little tweaking in the time department to work well. This may be because my smaller 4 Litre/quart slow cooker is a little under-powered. It was great in the end though and the leftovers made a superb breakfast the next day.

Here's how to attain cherry heaven in a few easy steps.

Ingredients for 4:

500g / 1lb fresh cherries
(or use a jar of cherries in natural juice or brandy, drained and the juices retained)
50 g / 4 tbsp butter
4 eggs, medium
2 extra egg yolks
125 g / 3/4 cup white sugar
75 g (1/2 cup) plain (all purpose) flour, sifted
600 ml (1 1/3 cups) whole milk

Directions:

Remove the slow cooker dish to butter it, pre-heating the base to High while you do so. Scatter the cherries over the bottom of the bowl.

Melt the rest of the butter (I used the microwave) in a bowl, then allow to cool slightly.

In another larger bowl, mix the eggs, yolks and sugar. Whisk in the cooled melted butter, then the flour, then the milk, to create a smooth batter.

Pour the batter over the cherries.

Place the slow cooker dish back into the casing, put on the lid and cook on High for 3-4 Hours (the recipe stated much less but at bedtime, we were still waiting!). The clafoutis is ready when the middle is just set like an oven-baked custard.

If you had juices from the jar, you could reduce by half in a saucepan over high heat and use as a pouring sauce. We had it as it was.

Verdict:

This was a very lovely dessert once it had cooked enough but it wasn't like the clafoutis I'd had in France which had more of a cakey texture from memory. This was more of an egg custard with fruit, despite the flour. You can also see from the photo that it was swimming in butter which was tasty but not exactly healthy. I think I'd reduce the butter by half next time. The leftovers were wonderful cold (or hot). I really enjoyed this but I wouldn't want to serve it to guests until I was more confident of the timings.