The first documented recipe appeared in 1864, though the dish almost certainly predates that record—it is the kind of thing that exists for generations in farmhouse kitchens before anyone thinks to write it down. The name derives from the Occitan word clafir, meaning to fill or to stuff, which describes the method exactly: the batter fills in around the fruit rather than the fruit being folded into the batter.

The cherry question is settled in Limousin and contested everywhere else. Traditional clafoutis uses whole unpitted black cherries—the Bigarreau variety when available—and purists are firm on this point. The pits are not a hazard to be engineered around, though they do require the diner’s attention; they are an essential part of the flavor profile. Pitting the cherries before baking produces a wetter, less complex result and is considered a compromise.

The naming distinction is less commonly known but worth stating: when clafoutis is made with any fruit other than cherries—plums, pears, apricots, blueberries—it is technically called a flaugnarde. The two terms are used interchangeably in most home kitchens and many cookbooks, which irritates the people who care about this, and they are not wrong to care. A cherry clafoutis and a plum flaugnarde are the same technique applied to different fruit, but only one of them is clafoutis.

Limousin cherries have a short season. The window for a correct, in-season clafoutis is approximately six weeks in early summer, which is part of why it tastes the way it does when it’s made right.

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Regional Roots

• France