During my recent use it up challenge I found many foods that had gotten pushed to the back of the freezer and forgotten, including about 5 pounds of pitted bing cherry halves. I really do love eating frozen cherries, but obviously never found them in the icy abyss and now I need to use as many as possible as quickly as possible. Eating my usual 1/2 cup serving would take forever to finish them, so I decided to get a little creative and use them a couple of other ways.
Last night we ate from the freezer using another pack of peas, squash and green tomato slices (yay us!) Since I was going to bake cornbread to use my ever growing kefir stash I figured I might as well bake something using some of the cherries and a little more of the kefir. I decided on a clafoutis because it tastes really good, it is really easy, and would bake at the same time and temp as the cornbread and "fried" green tomatoes. A perfect trifecta!
A clafoutis is a baked dessert that is somewhere between a pudding, cobbler and a custard. It has no added fat but it does have a fair amount of sugar, so it is neither the healthiest nor worst dessert in my repertoire. It is mainly just a simple really tasty end to the meal. (And the leftovers are not horrible cold for breakfast either!)
Easy Cherry Clafoutis
2 cups pitted sweet cherries (I used frozen because I had them in the freezer. Fresh would be better probably)
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar (omit and add 1 extra tablespoon sugar if you don't have any)
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
2 pinches salt
1/2 cup kefir (Just because I have a lot in the fridge)
1/2 cup milk (Use 1 cup and eliminate kefir if you don't have any)
2 teaspoons amaretto (use about 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract if you prefer)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350°
Butter and flour (Yeah right, spray that sucker with Pam) an 8x8 pyrex baking dish. (You can easily use an oblong or rectangular dish just make sure it is no larger in volume than an 8x8ish dish) Toss the cherries evenly in the bottom of the pan.
Mix the sugars with the eggs until it is a smooth mixture. Add the flour and salt and whisk until the flour is all incorporated and the batter is smooth. Add the milk, amaretto and vanilla and whisk through. Gently pour the batter over the cherries and pop it into the oven. Bake about 35-40 minutes. I test it like a custard and stick a flat blade knife into the center of it. If it comes out clean (It will be slightly damp but clear looking) I call it done. It will still be a little wiggly in the pan but that is how it is supposed to look. Let it cool a bit the serve. It will deflate but that is what is is supposed to do. (It is not a souffle after all.) Enjoy it anyway!
This is TheHub's preferred method of eating anything with cooked fruit. It pretty much negates that whole no added fat thing I was talking about earlier. You really don't need to top it with ice cream, but I am not going to fight any battle not worth fighting, especially since he can buy ice cream now when he does his recreational shopping. Oh well!
And as for this weeks positive events:
Monday: Major seasonal clothes change over done!
Tuesday: Book Club dinner out with the gals
Wednesday: Got the spring garden planned and got the spring/summer project list finished.
Thursday: Got Mom's taxes totally taken care of (I love finished!)
Friday: Out to eat with TheHub then a little recreational shopping at Publix (He was excited)
Saturday: Nice phone visit with my cousin, and a different but nice phone visit with Uncle Bob
Sunday: Lovely Sunday morning at church, then an accidental 2 hour nap!
Last night we ate from the freezer using another pack of peas, squash and green tomato slices (yay us!) Since I was going to bake cornbread to use my ever growing kefir stash I figured I might as well bake something using some of the cherries and a little more of the kefir. I decided on a clafoutis because it tastes really good, it is really easy, and would bake at the same time and temp as the cornbread and "fried" green tomatoes. A perfect trifecta!
A clafoutis is a baked dessert that is somewhere between a pudding, cobbler and a custard. It has no added fat but it does have a fair amount of sugar, so it is neither the healthiest nor worst dessert in my repertoire. It is mainly just a simple really tasty end to the meal. (And the leftovers are not horrible cold for breakfast either!)
Easy Cherry Clafoutis
2 cups pitted sweet cherries (I used frozen because I had them in the freezer. Fresh would be better probably)
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar (omit and add 1 extra tablespoon sugar if you don't have any)
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
2 pinches salt
1/2 cup kefir (Just because I have a lot in the fridge)
1/2 cup milk (Use 1 cup and eliminate kefir if you don't have any)
2 teaspoons amaretto (use about 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract if you prefer)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350°
Butter and flour (Yeah right, spray that sucker with Pam) an 8x8 pyrex baking dish. (You can easily use an oblong or rectangular dish just make sure it is no larger in volume than an 8x8ish dish) Toss the cherries evenly in the bottom of the pan.
Mix the sugars with the eggs until it is a smooth mixture. Add the flour and salt and whisk until the flour is all incorporated and the batter is smooth. Add the milk, amaretto and vanilla and whisk through. Gently pour the batter over the cherries and pop it into the oven. Bake about 35-40 minutes. I test it like a custard and stick a flat blade knife into the center of it. If it comes out clean (It will be slightly damp but clear looking) I call it done. It will still be a little wiggly in the pan but that is how it is supposed to look. Let it cool a bit the serve. It will deflate but that is what is is supposed to do. (It is not a souffle after all.) Enjoy it anyway!
This is TheHub's preferred method of eating anything with cooked fruit. It pretty much negates that whole no added fat thing I was talking about earlier. You really don't need to top it with ice cream, but I am not going to fight any battle not worth fighting, especially since he can buy ice cream now when he does his recreational shopping. Oh well!
And as for this weeks positive events:
Monday: Major seasonal clothes change over done!
Tuesday: Book Club dinner out with the gals
Wednesday: Got the spring garden planned and got the spring/summer project list finished.
Thursday: Got Mom's taxes totally taken care of (I love finished!)
Friday: Out to eat with TheHub then a little recreational shopping at Publix (He was excited)
Saturday: Nice phone visit with my cousin, and a different but nice phone visit with Uncle Bob
Sunday: Lovely Sunday morning at church, then an accidental 2 hour nap!
Though your dessert looks good your frozen and fried green tomatoes is what I am interested in. How do you freeze and cook the tomatoes? My dh loves these and I only make them in the summer. Thanks for any help.
ReplyDeleteI buy very green hard tomatoes, slice them about 1/4 inch thick and freeze them on a cookie sheet. When they are hard frozen I put them in quart or pint size bags (enough for 1 meals worth of tomatoes) When I am ready for them I thaw them in a colander, dip the slices in an egg wash and coat them with a mixture of cornmeal, and about 1 tablespoon of flour, salt, pepper, and dill weed. Spray a baking sheet about 3 times with pam, put the slices on the sheet. Spray the tops of the tomatoes with pam and pop them into a 350 oven for about 10 minutes. Turn each side with a spatula and spray them again with baking spray, Bake about 7 more minutes, or until they are crunchy enough for you.
DeleteThank you very much. I will have one happy husband. Cheryl
DeleteI've never done "fried" green tomatoes in the oven. I'm gonna have to remember that.
DeleteLove the look of your clafoutis. Something which for some reason I have never made. Himself would have it with icecream too. Or custard.
ReplyDeleteHooray for getting things 'finished' and naps. Naps are wunnaful.
I don't nap often at all, but Sunday afternoons seem to be a nap trap for me.
DeleteI've never heard that term before, but I am going to give that a try. I bet it would be wonderful with blueberries or raspberries as well. I had to smile at your wardrobe change over. Since you were still wearing warm weather clothes all winter when I was putting on sweaters, I wonder what that change over looks like?
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Now the change over is brighter colors and paper thin fabrics. For winter my warm weather wear is darker colors!
DeleteYuuuummmmm! I love cherry clafoutis!!! And I love your positive list too! =)
ReplyDeleteI am clafoutis indifferent mainly because I am not a big fan of cooked fruits, but it it has a much better texture to me than most cooked fruit desserts.
DeleteYou must have the biggest freezer on Earth. Can you store a body in your freezer? Just wondering in case I ever need some help with a . . . disposal.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
My freezer is not a walk in but it is not a small freezer. I could not store one as it, but__I have lots of room for "packaged" things
DeleteTherefore, something large can be cut into pieces, tightly wrapped, and then you can store the packages. Good to know.
DeleteI am, by my very nature, an accommodating wonder!
DeleteI've never heard of a clafoutis before - I've really been missing out!!
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty good, Jane!
DeleteI haven't had clafoutis yet. It sounds quite delicious, though, especially with a scoop of ice cream on top! Your list of positives sounds good, too. I rather liked that Sunday afternoon nap! Hope you have a wonderful week, Anne.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bless! And the clafoutis is pretty tasty and I am not a cooked fruit lover at all, but that makes it a perfect dessert for me to have around.
ReplyDeleteIt looks so tasty! I'm on a diet but will allow myself a dessert for Easter, this is a definite possibility!
ReplyDeleteI only eat sweets once a week, so this was it for me. Like I said, if you leave off the ice cream it is not a terribly bad dessert to indulge in.
DeleteAnd, I used up some blueberries. We should have had a taste of each other's creations. Even though I brushed my teeth well, I had a blueberry seed in my teeth this morning. At least, cherries don't do that. I am going to keep that recipe.
ReplyDeleteI bet it was good with blueberries!
Deleteooohhh that looks good! I've never had kefir. I might try that out sometime.
ReplyDeleteits tasty!
Delete