Easy Fresh Fruit Clafouti

This fresh fruit dessert uses only the simplest ingredients, and the most basic techniques-it's a natural for summer, when you want the most bang for your energy buck! Dark sweet cherries are the traditional fruit used to make this rustic French tart, but if you're not up to pitting a bag of cherries, feel free to use about 3 cups berries, or bite-sized pieces of the fruit of your choice: peaches or nectarines are particularly nice at this time of the year.

3 cups pitted fruit
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk or cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or 100% organic white whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9 x 2-inch round cake pan, or a 9-inch pie pan at least 1 1/2 inches deep. Place the fruit in the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, melted butter, vanilla, almond extract, and sugar. Whisk in the flour, stirring till most of the lumps are gone. Pour the batter over the fruit.

Bake the clafouti for 45 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove it from the oven, and serve it in wedges, warm or at room temperature. A dab of whipped cream is entirely appropriate. Yield: 8 servings.

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