I love Juila Child, she is the awesome. It’s also cherry season, which means you have to do something with all those cherries! I thought I’d whip out the classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking and see what Julia had to say, which was the clafouti.
According to the book, clafouti is a fruit flan, which is an egg custard filled with tasty cherry bits.
I have to admit, my clafouti could have been better. The bottom didn’t set correctly before I added the cherries, and the custard was kind of pasty and just lacking. It wasn’t as bad as the cupcake disaster though, so feel free to improve on what I’ve made!
Cherry Clafouti
(from Mastering the Art of French Cooking)
Ingredients:
3 cups pitted black cherries
butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
————-
Batter ingredients:
1 1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
Directions:
Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly butter an 7-8 cup baking dish or pie plate about 1 1/2 inches deep.
Place all the ingredients below the line into a blender in the order listed, and blend at high speed for one minute.
Pour a 1/4 inch layer of batter into the baking dish.
The original recipe calls for a fireproof dish, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking for a few of these for the past year or so and have only found two, one at the flea market, another at a thrift store, neither of which are big enough for this recipe.
Because the recipe wanted me to put the dish over an open flame/burner, I instead put it in the preheated oven until the batter had set, which took 5-10 minutes depending on the dish, the batter and the way your oven heats.
After the batter has set, spread the pitted cherries over the batter, and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of granulated sugar. Pour the remaining batter over the cherries.
Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake approximately an hour. It is done when it has puffed and browned, and a knife inserted in the center of the dish comes out clean. It will sink as it cools.
Sprinkle powdered sugar over the dish just before serving.
Serve warm.
Cherry Clafouti
(from Mastering the Art of French Cooking)
Ingredients:
3 cups pitted black cherries
butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
————-
1 1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly butter an 7-8 cup baking dish or pie plate about 1 1/2 inches deep.
Place all the ingredients below the line into a blender in the order listed, and blend at high speed for one minute.
Pour a 1/4 inch layer of batter into the baking dish.
The original recipe calls for a fireproof dish, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking for a few of these for the past year or so and have only found two, one at the flea market, another at a thrift store, neither of which are big enough for this recipe.
Because the recipe wanted me to put the dish over an open flame/burner, I instead put it in the preheated oven until the batter had set, which took 5-10 minutes depending on the dish, the batter and the way your oven heats.
After the batter has set, spread the pitted cherries over the batter, and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of granulated sugar. Pour the remaining batter over the cherries.
Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake approximately an hour. It is done when it has puffed and browned, and a knife inserted in the center of the dish comes out clean. It will sink as it cools.
Sprinkle powdered sugar over the dish just before serving.
I’m just going to get to the point, they’re dim sum, they’re finger food, they’re oriental, and they’re sesame seed covered goodness.
The ingredients for these tasty balls are simple, but might be hard to find if you don’t have an Asian market near by. Then again, there’s always the internet. If you can’t find what you need in the Asian market, ask! Many times items are only labeled with their native language, the people working in the store will be more than happy to find you what you need.
I got my recipe from the book Classic Deem Sum by Henry Chan, Yukio Haydock, and Bob Haydock. The recipes are from Yank Sing Restaurant in San Francisco. The book was published in 1985 so it might be a little hard to find. I found mine at the library but there are a few on Amazon.
I modified their recipe a little bit. Red bean paste is easily found already prepared in Asian markets, so I used prepared red bean paste instead of making my own.
The recipe calls for wheat starch. Wheat starch is NOT wheat flour. Wheat starch is finer and resembles corn starch more than flour. I found mine at my local Asian market.
Make one batch of sweet rice dough at least two hours in advance.
Sweet Rice Dough:
Ingredients
2 cups sweet rice flour
3/4 c water
1/4 c lard, softened (I used crisco)
2/3 c wheat starch
1/4 c dark brown sugar, packed
2/3 c boiling water
Start with the rice flour
Mix in the water.
Mix by hand until the mixture forms a dough, set aside.
Add the lard (or crisco) to the wheat starch.
Mix together. I used a fork to do this, much like you would for a pie crust.
Add the brown sugar to 2/3 cup water and stir until dissolved.
Bring to a boil.
This next part is a little tricky and involves hot boiling sugar water, so there aren’t any pictures.
To the wheat starch and lard mixture, quickly pour the boiling sugar water mixture while stirring vigorously until combined. (See told you this was tricky.)
It should look like this when combined.
Add the wheat starch mixture to the rice flour and mix well by hand.
The instructions then say to turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead until thoroughly mixed, about 10 minutes. I realized my handy kitchenaid would work much better, and tossed it in there for a while until the dough formed a nice ball.
Flatten the dough to 1/2 and inch and wrap in plastic wrap.
Preheat 4/6 cups of oil (or heat your deep fryer) to 360 degrees F.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide in half. Rewrap one half and set aside. Knead the other portion a few times and roll into a 1 inch dough worm.
Cut dough into 20 sections and roll each into a ball. Cover and repeat with the other half of the dough.
The bean paste I had was a little watery so I drained it a bit. I took a spoonful at a time and set it in a couple paper towels (a tea towel would work well also). Fold over the towel and squeeze to remove some of the water. When you unfold the towel the paste should be noticeably drier.
Take one of the balls and form into a shallow cup.
Add a dab of the bean paste 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon to the center of the cup.
Bring the sides up to close the opening and roll in the palm to make an even ball.
Roll this ball into white sesame seeds to coat.
Fry the sesame seed balls in 360 degree F oil about 4-6 at a time. Remove each ball when it begins to float. Drain on a rack or paper towels, serve hot.
8 oz dried red beans
1/4 c black sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 c lard (or crisco)
1 1/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1. Wash beans in cold water. Discard any that float.
2. Put beans into a 2-quart pan. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, uncovered, over high heat.
3. When water boils, add 1/2 c more water and reduce heat to medium. Cook, covered, until beans are tender enough to be easily mashed between thumb and finger, about 2 hours. Replace water as necessary to keep beans covered. Cool in liquid to room temperature.
4. Place beans and liquid in bowl of food processor with metal blade. Puree.
5. Place towel in mixing bowl. Pour in beans. Gather four corners together and twist to squeeze out excess liquid. Discard liquid.
6. Toast black sesame seeds and pulverize in a food processor or blender. Set aside.
7. Heat lard in wok over medium heat until liquified. Add bean paste, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat while stirring constantly until beans are the consistency of slightly dry mashed potatoes, about 25 minutes. Make sure the mixture doesn’t burn.
8. Stir in pulverized black sesame seeds at this point. The mixture should be very thick.
9. Place in a shallow bowl and cool to room temperature.
These are the spiffiest muffins in the whole wide world. I definitely recommend them.
2 1/4 c
303 g
All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp
10g
Baking Powder
1 tsp
6 g
Baking Soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c
105 g
Sugar
1/2 c
Vegetable Oil
1
50 g
large egg
1
20 g
large egg yolk
1 c
Plain Yogurt
1-2 c
Muffin Fixins (nuts, fruit etc)
Place rack in center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees Ferenheit. Prepare a muffin tin. Assemble the dry goods, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then in a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients, the sugar, oil, eggs, and yogurt. Mix the wet goods in the dry adding the extras, and mix until just combined. There will be lumps. Drop the batter into the tin, the cups should be full. Bake for 18-20 minutes until interior reaches 210 or a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven immediately and turn the muffins on their sides so that the steam can escape the pan. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to a week or until they taste gross, smell bad or grow fur.
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