Unlike many Americans, we decided to stay home this summer rather than crowd the plazas of Europe. We’ve been enjoying the farmers market and garden bounty of a warm and wet stateside year. The rolling harvest reminds us of some of our favorite dishes we ate overseas. They taste as good at home, even if the ambiance is different.

Cherries from the Pacific Northwest have been incredible. They are sweet, large, firm, and more inexpensive than we’ve seen in years. When we have a lot of cherries, we can’t help but think of making clafoutis, a rustic dish we associate with French country inns (like the one above). Most of the recipes we’ve encountered were geared to rather large baking dishes and made enough clafoutis to feed a legion. In our own collection of baking dishes, we discovered a 9-inch round glass dish with straight sides that could emulate the beautiful glazed terra cotta dishes that the French prefer.

It’s a perfect summer dessert. Fresh and fruity, it cooks quickly so it doesn’t heat the house. We dab it with a little vanilla-scented whipped cream, but the dish is delicious on its own.

The following recipe is adapted from one by David Leibowitz, who points out that the batter is essentially a crêpe batter, but with a little flour to soak up the juices from the fruit.

CHERRY CLAFOUTIS

Ingredients

• 5/8 lb (270g) pitted sweet cherries
• 1.5 large eggs (75g), at room temperature
• 1/4 cup (35g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 cup (50g) sugar plus extra sprinkling sugar
• 2/3 cup (165ml) lowfat milk
• Butter or shortening to grease baking dish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Smear a one-quart (one liter) shallow baking dish liberally with butter or shortening.

Lay pitted cherries in a single layer in the baking dish. They should cover the bottom.

In a bowl, mix eggs, flour, vanilla and almond extracts, 1/4 cup sugar, and milk together until smooth. (An immersion blender does this very efficiently.)

Pour the batter over the cherries and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the clafoutis until the custard is just set; a knife poked in the center should emerge relatively clean. It takes 25-30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.