The question is on! Shall I still call this cake a clafoutis?? If you refer to the Grand Larousse gastronomique the clafoutis (from Limousin) is a « cake » with some cherries in a kind of a pancake (crepe) pasta.

The thing is, I am never really liked the clafoutis. The pasta is too thick according to me. But with the season in, a lot of blogs proposed the recipe. There is one that just caught up my attention, the recipe from Mamina.  She followed a recipe from Pierre Hermé, where most of the flour is replaced with bread (white loaf), and the eggs are separated with beaten eggwhites. So the later one implies that the pasta is less thicker…hhmmm!

I thought and thought about it, shall I try it or not, and the idea poped up. Maybe not the best one, but why not replacing the white loaf bread with some gingerbread??!! Well I really like the result. The mix of cherries with spices fo the gingerbread (mainly cinnamon actually in mine), the crunchy particles of almond flour and some pieces of gingerbread. And as Mamina said the plus is the  little acidity given by the lemon zest (note that she also found the pasta a little bit too heavy, what I did not found it here…my point of view). So the recipe is for sure far from the traditional one but the result is there too. Clafoutis or not try it and let me know!

Cherries clafoutis

• 3 eggs
• 400 g cherries
• 100 ml milk
• 60 ml cream
• 80 g sugar
• 80 g gingerbread
• 50 g almonds flour
• 50 g soften butter
• 1 lemon zest

1. Warm up the oven at 180°C.
2. Wash the cherries and remove the tail.
3. Put the gingerbread in the milk until the gingerbread gets soften.
4. In a blender mix the eggyolks, almonds flour, gingerbread with the milk, butter, sugar, cream and lemon zest altogether until the bread is finely mixed.
5. Beat the eggwhites until stiff adding a tbsp of sugar half way.
6. Incorporate the eggwhites to the previous mix.
7. Put the cherries in a pie plate and pour the mix on it.
8. Put in the oven and cook it for 35-40 minutes.
9. Eat it cold!

Clafoutis aux cerises

• 3 oeufs
• 400 g de cerises
• 100 ml de lait
• 60 ml de crème fraiche liquide
• 80 g de sucre
• 80 g de pain d’épices
• 50 g d’amandes en poudre
• 50 g de beurre mou
• le zeste d’un citron

1. Préchauffer le four à 180°C.
2. Laver et équeutter les cerises.
3. Faire tremper le pain d’épices dans le lait jusqu’à ce qu’il ramollisse.
4. Dans le bol du mixeur mixer les jaunes d’oeufs, la poudre d’amandes, le beurre, le pain d’épices avec le lait, le sucre, la crème et le zeste de citron jusqu’à ce que le pain d’épices soit mixé.
5. Monter les blancs en neige en ajoutant une c. à s. de sucre à mi parcours.
6. Incorporer doucement les blancs au précédent mélange.
7. Disposer les cerises dans un plat à gratin et verser dessus le mélange.
8. Enfourner et laisser cuire 35-40 minutes.
9. Déguster bien froid!

Clafoutis con le ciliegie

• 3 uova
• 400 g ciliegie
• 100 ml latte
• 60 ml panna liquida
• 80 g zucchero
• 80 g panpepato
• 50 g farina di mandorle
• 50 g burro morbido
• buccia grattugiata di un limone

1. Accendere il forno a 180°C.
2. Pulire le ciliegie e togliere il picciolo.
3. Mettere il panpepato nel latte.
4. Con la frusta mescolare i tuorli, farina di mandorle, burro, panpepato e latte, zucchero, panna liquida e la buccia di limone insieme finché il panpepato sia frullato.
5. Montare le albume a neve aggiugendo una cucchiaia di zucchero alla metà del percorso .
6. Aggiungere le albume al primo impasto.
7. Sistemare le ciliegie in una teglia da forno imburrata e versare la pastella sopra.
8. Infornare per circa 35-40 minute.
9. Lasciar raffreddare completamente prima di servire!

This is certainly one of the most regressive desserts. Who can not remember his 4pm snack or breakfast from his childhood??!

Easy to do, fast to cook and much easier to eat. The crostata (pie or tarte) is a very common dessert here in Italy. You can always see it at some bar. It is just pasta and some marmelade or nutella. You can not miss it. Two simple ingredients but the best ones will make that dessert really good.

Yesterday I did some crostata with a leftover of some homemade kiwi marmelade lost since quite a time in the fridge. Huge success, 6 little boat shape tarts all gone within 5 minutes. Today I still had some pasta left but not enough kiwi marmelade, so I picked up in the nutella (after somebody else did it ). According to A. he prefered the kiwi one, but according from what I can still see that somebody likes this one too

Crostata di nutella

• Pate sucrée
• Nutella

1. Riscaldare il forno a 200°C.
2. Stendere la pasta su un piatto da torta con uno spessore di circa 4/5 mm.
3. Versare il nutella.
4. Infornare per circa 15-20 minuti.

Tarte au nutella

• Pate sucrée
• Nutella

1. Préchauffer les four à 200°C.
2. Abaisser la pate et l’étaler dans un moule.
3. Couvrir de nutella.
4. Enfouner pour 15-20 minutes.

Nutella tart

• Pate sucrée
• Nutella

1. Warm-up the oven at 200°C.
2. Roll out the pasta on 4 mm thickness and put it in a pie plate.
3. Cover it with some nutella.
4. Put in the oven for about 15-20 mns.