Mini black cherry (almost dairy-free) clafoutis and Happy New Year

I was first introduced to the clafoutis back in Australia when Hubs and I just moved in together. Having never tasted it myself back then, Hubs used to rave about his mum’s clafoutis aux cerises (cherry clafoutis) until I could almost smell it baking in the oven. As it was just the beginning of our relationship, I wasn’t quite ready to ask my ‘potential mother-in-law’ for her clafoutis recipe, so I went on the hunt for my own.

8 years later, I don’t hear Hubs going on about his mum’s clafoutis anymore (as good as it is)! Hehe!

Anyway, as Hubs is now dairy-intolerant, I had to adapt the original recipe to an almost dairy-free recipe (except for the butter for greasing!). I was a bit unsure of how it would turn out using a ‘soya cream’ but I didn’t hear any complaints from Hubs.

This super-easy-1-bowl recipe is adapted from Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2. I usually just make one huge clafoutis but as we now have a mini-fridge, I had to make mini-clafoutis as it’s easier to store the leftovers.
This is what I used:

Butter for greasing
Caster sugar for dusting
1 can (425g) pitted black cherries (drained)
1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup caster sugar
2.5 teaspoons vanilla extract (I added more vanilla extract to hide the “soya” taste in the batter! The original recipe only uses 1 teaspoon)
1 cup dairy-free (soya) cream or single cream
3 eggs

The original recipe suggests preheating the oven to 180C but I found that was too hot and so preheated to 150C.

Grease an 8 cup capacity ovenproof dish with butter, and dust with sugar to prevent sticking. I used a muffin pan (holds 18) to make the mini-clafoutis.

Put the flour, sugar, vanilla and cream in a bowl and whisk. Add the eggs and whisk till smooth.

Pour the batter into the muffin tray then add the cherries. Or you could add the cherries first then pour the batter over (original recipe).

Bake for 35-40 mins and voila, easy-peasy clafoutis for a cold winter’s evening.

Dust with sugar and serve.

Happy New Year!