Luxardo Cherry Ricotta Clafoutis

What is clafoutis? It's a classic French dessert, made with an eggy flan-like batter, traditionally filled with black cherries. It's often served warm, usually with a dusting of powdered sugar, and

occasionally with cream.

Clafoutis is obviously a French word, but to my English-speaking brain it sounds almost onomatopoeic. I think of it as something cloud-like, fluffy, fruity, and sweet… and that’s essentially what it is.

This treat straddles both brunch and dessert territory. It's not too sweet. It's not fussy to make. It comes together in a blender. Yes, a blender. The filling is custardy, rich but not too decadent, and studded with roasted fruit. As the name suggests, I’ve added booze to the batter and to the whipped cream to enhance the cherry flavor, and to make this clafoutis a little extra celebratory. If you don’t have Luxardo or Kirsch on hand, you can skip this boozy addition.

This recipe lends itself to many other fruits: peaches, plums, strawberry, apple, and more. But we're deep in cherry season here in LA, and because their season is relatively short, and because cherries are like the incredible delicious jewels of the fruit world, I try to use them in as many ways possible while they're around. Of course, I love them fresh, eaten simply as is - but sometimes you want to do something special to really celebrate this fruit of late spring.

Cherry Ricotta Clafoutis with Luxardo Whipped Cream

Serves 8-10

for the clafoutis-

5 eggs

½ cup sugar

½ cup whole milk ricotta

¼ cup milk

2 tablespoons Luxardo, Kirsch, or other cherry brandy (optional)

½ a vanilla bean, seeds scraped from pot (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¾ cup all purpose flour

1½ lb. cherries (700g), pitted (fresh or frozen)

for the Luxardo whipped cream-

1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons Luxardo, Kirsch or other cherry brandy

½ a vanilla bean, seeds scraped from pot (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Grease an oval 11”x 8” baking dish, or a 10”-12” cast iron pan. This recipe can be used in different-sized dishes, but larger dishes will result in less time to bake. Sprinkle a little sugar around the baking dish.

Pit all of the cherries using a cherry pitter, or halve them and remove the pits. Reserve.

In a blender, combine the eggs, ricotta, milk, Luxardo, vanilla and salt. Blend until smooth. Add the flour and blend until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the baking dish.

Scatter the cherries around the baking dish.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the clafoutis is puffed and golden and the custard is firm.

Cherry Almond Cake

It took me a while, but I figured something out: making cake is easy. Once I got over that whole pastry-is-an-exact-science-and-there-is-no-wiggle-room-or-disaster-will-ensue thing, I found that I've gotten a lot more creative and comfortable with the whole idea of making baked desserts. I learned a few key things: 1) the temperature of your ingredients is critical, 2) most cakes are just combos of eggs, butter, sugar and leveaners, you can be slightly off about all those things and stuff will probably come out ok, and 3) keep an eye on things, because no two ovens or batters are the same.

There's one caveat to this whole ease business... baking started to get A LOT easier for me once I had the right gear. My favorite piece of gear is the stand mixer. The stand mixer makes me feel like I'm cheating at baking. But even without a pricey stand mixer (thank you older brother for the gift!) cake isn't hard. If you have a hand mixer, or lots of upper body strength and a whisk, you'll be just fine.

On Sunday I got in a cake making mood. That day, cherries were the stars of the Hollywood Farmers' Market and I couldn't resist them. I grew up with a cherry tree in my back yard, and as early as six years old I could be found climbing said tree and picking and eating sun-warmed cherries directly off unstable branches.

I brought home the cherries, and thought about classic cherry pairings. Almonds immediately came to my mind. I figured I could make a pretty basic cake, replace some of the flour with ground almonds, add some almond extract, and throw some cherries in there. I knew the cherries might sink to the bottom of the cake, but I didn't care. I wanted to keep this easy. If you want to add a step, you can make the batter without cherries, add it to the baking dish, dust your cherries in flour, and lightly place them on top of the batter. They will sink less that way, but I honestly couldn't be bothered.

If you can't get fresh cherries, frozen cherries are pretty awesome. I really like this brand, and I snack on them all winter. They'll work in this recipe, so you don't even have to sacrifice your perfectly good-as-is fresh cherries.

Long story short: this cake is crazy good.

Cherry Almond Cake
Serves 12 (or 1)

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature (very important)
1 cup organic cane sugar (regular white sugar works too)
2 eggs, room temperature (very important)
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup finely ground almonds (or almond meal or almond flour)
1 cup milk (2% or whole)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (add a full teaspoon if you like extra almond flavor)
2 cups cherries, halved and pitted
1/3 cup raw sliced almonds
raw sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C

Grease a 9 x 11 baking dish, and line it with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper. Set aside.

In a stand mixture with a paddle attachment on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy. If you use regular white sugar this will take 3-4 minutes. If you are using organic cane sugar it takes about 5-6 minutes. You can also use a hand mixer to beat the butter and sugar. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar and beat them well for another minute or two.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the ground almonds into the flour mixture. I ground my almonds in a coffee grinder, you could also use a food processor, or you could just use almond meal or almond flour.

Turn the stand mixer to low, and add a third of the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Add a third of the milk. Alternate the dry ingredients and the milk until everything is fully incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix your batter at this stage. Gently fold in the almond extract, vanilla extract, and the cherries.

Pour the batter into the baking dish, and top it with the sliced raw almonds and raw sugar.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a cake-tester or toothpick comes out clean.

Let it cool in the pan. Serve for breakfast, lunch, or dinner... it works for all three.

Goat Cheese Tartine with Cherries and Mint

I can subsist solely on bread and cheese. Good bread and cheese would be ideal, but frankly, I'll accept any form of either. When a great loaf of bread ends up in my kitchen I get inspired to top it with other good things.

A tartine is just the French word for "open-faced sandwich." This tartine came as a result of having an incredible bag of cherries (it's peak cherry season in Bakersfield, CA), a bundle of fresh mint, and some crazy good goat cheese (Artisan Farmstead Goat Cheese from Drake Family Farms - available at the Hollywood farmers' market). 

It's hard to go wrong with good things paired with other complementary good things on top of toasted bread. If it's not cherry season where you are, strawberries or apricots would also work well with goat cheese and mint. If the bread was sliced into small pieces and toasted in the oven, this would make a great appetizer at a dinner party. It's also perfectly wonderful as a lunch for one.

Goat Cheese Tartine with Cherries and Mint

sliced cherries

soft goat cheese

fresh mint, chopped

good bread, sliced 

salt

Toast the bread. Slather with goat cheese. Sprinkle with mint. Top with sliced cherries. Sprinkle with course salt. You could even drizzle this with good olive oil or Balsamic if the mood strikes. Serve immediately.