A Sweet Bastille Day Celebration {Cherry Clafoutis, Snow Eggs, Chocolate Pots De Creme}

The French really know how to make fantastic desserts.

In honor of Bastille Day, I'm going to share a few classic, and delicious French desserts.

Cherry Clafoutis

Cherry Clafoutis (kla-FOO-tee) is a dessert that consists of cherries covered with a thick batter that is described as being somewhere between flan and crepe batter.

Traditionally, cherry clafoutis is made with cherries that still contain a pit. The pits are said to release a lovely almond-like flavor when baked. However, some people choose to remove the pits for easier eating. Some recipes include almonds, or almond extract to make up for the flavor of the removed pits.

I chose to leave the pits in so that I could experience a TRUE cherry clafoutis, the way it was meant to be experienced. I also made a second clafoutis with pitted cherries just so I could compare the two, and see for myself if I could truly taste a difference.

Cherry Clafoutis is a very simple dessert. Just blend a few basic ingredients together, pour over cherries, and bake. It took only 5 minutes, if that, to put together.

My entire house smelled absolutely wonderful as the scent of the batter started drifting out of the oven. While baking, the batter puffs up beautifully, and naturally sinks back down when taken out of the oven. Unfortunately, it fell flat long before I was able to get a shot of it, but it did look gorgeous!

The texture of the clafoutis is very much like a crepe. It's very soft, light, and fluffy.

The taste is wonderful! The slightly sour cherries were a great contrast to the sweet vanilla flavor of the batter. I did notice a slight difference between the two clafoutis I made, and if I had to blindly pick one over the other based off of taste I would pick the one with the cherry pits. However, it would be a lot easier to enjoy it without having to stop to spit pits out of every bite.

This dessert was delicious, and I'd love to try it with other fruits. Perhaps raspberries or peaches. :)

Recipe for Cherry Clafoutis

Oeufs à La Neige

Oeufs a la neige (OUFS ah lah nehzh) - meaning 'eggs in snow' - sometimes referred to as 'Snow Eggs'. This unusual dessert consists of meringue floating on top of a vanilla custard, called crème anglaise. I've never seen anything quite like this before, so you can bet I was intrigued by it.
This dessert was a little more hands on than the others featured in this post, for the fact that it deals with poaching balls of meringue. It was still very easy, using a few very basic ingredients.

The crème anglaise is very good. It has a lovely vanilla flavor, and smooth texture. I absolutely loved what the poached meringue did to this dish. The flavor combination is fantastic! I especially love the texture of the meringue. Delicious! :)

Recipe for Oeufs A La Neige

Chocolate Pots De Creme

Pots De Creme (poh-duh-KREHM) is a very rich custard dessert, typically served in tiny cups. Some pots de creme recipes call for the custard to be baked in a water bath, then chilled before eaten. The recipe I have chosen does not require any baking, just a few hours of chilling. I'm not sure if there is a difference between baked and unbaked pots de creme...?

This Pots De Creme is super easy to make, just cook a few ingredients together for about 4 minutes and stick in the fridge until thick. Once cooked, this stuff is pretty much like a thin pudding. I definitely could have eaten it just like that.

And, after being chilled for a few hours, it just gets even better.

Pots De Creme is very, very creamy. And decadently RICH. It's a good thing it is served in tiny portions, because it is super thick. I couldn't even finish one! Talk about satisfying! :)

Recipe for Chocolate Pots De Creme

Of all three of these recipes, I have never before made any or even tasted any before now. This was truly a new experience for me. It is my experiences such as this one that led me to begin a blog in the first place. I love having the opportunity to teach myself new things in the kitchen, and sharing what I learned with you. I really enjoyed all these new foods, and putting this post together. I hope you enjoy it too!