Gluten-Free Adventures: Cherry Clafoutis

Gluten-Free Cherry Clafoutis, version 1. Top., a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

This summer we were gifted with the biggest, juiciest, sweetest cherries ever. While my kids are perfectly content to suck them down as is, I thought it would be nice to make something special with them. Cherry clafoutis is a French baked dessert of cherries in an eggy batter. Ooooohhhh. And, there are gluten-free versions. Hello? I tried two recipes.

This first one is from the book "125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes" by Washburn and Butt. It was my first clafoutis, and I thought it was pretty good. It's a wrinkly and lumpy looking dessert, if you've never seen it before, and I had to google pictures of it to make sure mine looked right. This one turned out more on the pancake-y, bread-y side. I won't post the recipe here in the interest of space, but I've made other desserts from these authors and I think the book is worth looking at.

Then I tried another version, by the Gluten-Free Goddess, who based her recipe on adaptation of Julia Child's recipe by Cooking with Amy. This one varied quite a bit from Julia Child's basic cherries-eggs-flour-sugar-milk version, especially with the extra egg. But oh, man, it was good. It's basically a cherry egg pie. I mean look at it. It's yellow and custardy, almost like a flan. I'll pass along the recipe for this one, since it's a bit more involved with the coconut flour and maple syrup, but those give a lot of extra flavor. This is not a traditional clafoutis, I think, but it sure is worth making, if you're looking for a crowd-pleasing, easy-bake, gluten-free summertime dessert.

Gluten-Free Cherry Clafoutis
(from Gluten-Free Goddess -- it's also dairy-free and refined sugar-free)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup vanilla almond milk or coconut milk
4 organic free-range eggs
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup brown rice flour or sorghum flour
1 tablespoon bourbon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups fresh cherries, pitted

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Using your favorite vegan butter, grease the bottom and sides of an 8x12-inch oval gratin baking dish. Set aside. (I used regular butter, and a regular pie plate)

Using a blender or Vita-Mix, whip the almond milk, eggs, maple syrup, coconut flour, brown rice flour, vanilla extract, and sea salt till smooth and frothy.

Pour roughly half an inch of batter into the buttered gratin dish and bake it in the oven until it is lightly set- just a few minutes. Take the baking dish out of the oven and add the cherries in an even layer. Pour on the remaining batter.

Return the dish to the oven and bake for about 50 to 55 minutes, until slightly golden around the edges, and set in the center.