Amarena cherries are dark bitter cherries from northern Italy. They are usually preserved in heavy syrup. The cherries are particularly good in pastries like zeppole and in gelato. I picked up a jar of Amarena cherries at my favorite deli a few weeks ago to make zeppole, but I never got around to doing so. For weeks, I ‘ve been thinking about how I could use these cherries in some of my favorite sweet and savory recipes. I finally settled on Amarena Cherry Clafoutis—a simple and easy recipe that is ever so flavorful.
The Amarena cherries are preserved in an extra sweet heavy syrup so it’s important to drain the cherries at least 15 minutes before adding them to the batter. If you don’t drain them, it will add more liquid to the batter and it may interfere with the baking time. I drain the cherries over a bowl and keep the syrup to use another day. The cherries have a strong flavor, too. I usually add only one cup of the cherries to the batter so that the flavor doesn’t dominate the clafoutis. Once you taste the cherries, you’ll know if you want to add more than one cup. You can also place the cherries in the bottom of the baking dish, then pour the batter over them.
I prefer any custard pastry to be chilled before serving but my husband couldn’t wait that long to eat a slice of clafoutis. We poured two glasses of milk, whole milk for him and skim for me, and we ate our room temperature pastry. I went to put it up later, and I noticed that half of the clafoutis was gone. He went back for more.

Amarena Cherry Clafoutis
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 vanilla pod
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup Amarena cherries
- 3 tbsp confectioner’s sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scrape the vanilla bean and put the seeds, pod, and cream in a small saucepan. Heat on low for a couple of minutes until the mixture is slightly warm. Remove from heat and add milk. Remove the vanilla pod.
- Mix together flour and sugar; whisk in eggs then add vanilla cream mixture. Stir; add cherries. Pour into a 9 inch round baking dish. Bake 30-35 minutes or until clafoutis is golden brown on top. Cool completely and dust with confectioner’s sugar. Serve chilled.
DISCLOSURE
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and buy the product, I will receive a very small commission of the sales price at no cost to you.
I’m intrigued by the mention of this cherry, which I’ve never tried. Your dessert with powdered sugar looks lovely!
–G
http://gingerwroot.com
That looks so good! I have never had a clafoutis before and those cherries sound wonderful too. I can see why your husband went back for another slice. I don’t think I could have waited for it to cool either!
Thanks for sharing this at Dream Create and Inspire! What a beautiful pie.. its a pleasure you stop by..love if you hop over and visit me at http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com/ just finished my one room challenge.
Its a pleasure again to have you!
Maria
OMG, this looks absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing with us!
This looks like a yummy pie. I need to make this one.
I love cherries. This looks like a really good recipe for spring that I will have to try soon.
Loved the recipe and pinned it for my reference. Thanks for sharing it with us! 🙂
Looks delicious!!
This looks absolutely beautiful! I bet it tastes just as lovely as it looks
I live in cherry country and it’s one fruit we all look forward to around July 4th. Great choice to use these cherries – I can almost taste this dessert. Never made a clafoutis before – guess I need to. Happy Fiesta Friday and thanks for coming to the party.
Oh, yum! This looks beautiful! 🙂
This is just the kind of dessert I love! Thanks for sharing at My Flagstaff Home.
Jennifer
Happy FF Sherry!Wow your clafoutis looks absolutely marvelous. i’ve had a few attempts at making it in the past but it has all ended in failure. You have inspired me to try once again and hopefully it will turn out this time. Would it be possible to make this with glutenfree flour? Amarena cherries are also new to me. I don’t think that I’ll be able to find them around here would blueberries work instead?
I’ve never tried gluten-free flour. I’m not sure how it would turn out. I think you can substitute the fruit. Blueberries should work okay.
OMG..that pie looks delicious. I have never heard of AMARENA CHERRY CLAFOUTIS . I think I’ll try making it. The pie looks easy to make. Pinned!!
This looks amazing!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Blessings,
Edye | http://gracefulcoffee.wordpress.com
I love your clafoutis! I’ve never made it myself but I do like it and yours looks so good! Yumm 😀
This a different cherry recipe from anything I have ever made which excites me. Will be making this soon.
This is so different than anything I have made so I must try it! I like that it is an Italian spin on a French classic recipe.
Looks rich and yummy! Loved your pictures too 🙂
This looks so good, I love cherries too. I would add my generous spoonful of whipped cream, that I put on most desserts.
I have the same problem with disappearing baked goods in my house. I hardly get to enjoy them before they’re gone. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe with us at the Friday Funday blog hop. <3
Looks wonderful. Pinned and shared. Thanks for sharing your amazing recipes with us at #Throwback Thursday.
Thanks for stopping by!
That looks super decadent and fancy. I’m not a big cherry fan but my husband would love it!
This sounds really yummy! I’m not sure if I’ve ever had this kind of cherry before, but I would love to try them!
That looks absolutely delicious.
Thanks for sharing with SYC.
Oh my goodness gracious, this looks divine!!!! I especially your food-tography 🙂 totally pinning, have a great day! xo
I can only imagine how wonderful this cake must taste like! Lovely recipe!! I just pinned it! Thank you so much for sharing at my craft party on Thursday! Would love to see your newest posts this week, which starts at 7pm EST.
This sounds heavenly! 🙂
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
This sounds like a very rich and delish version of clafoutis! Thanks for sharing with us on Throwback Thursday!
Mollie
This looks delicious, Clafoutis is one of my daughters favourite desserts to make. Not sure I cam find those particular cherries here in Wales but cherry Clafoutis all the same may be making a reappeance to our menu plan. Thank you for sharing.
I have never tried amarena, I think they are original from the north of Italy and Slovenia, but the clafoutis looks delicious.
Thanks for sharing with us at Sweet Inspiration party. Have a wonderful week!
Oh my!! Looks soooo delicious!!
This sounds pretty amazing, Sherry! Now I need to find amarena cherries ?
Hi Sherry! I’m a little late but wanted to let you know that I chose your post as one of my Monday Special Features this past week. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂 This look delicious!
If you’d like to take a look here’s a link to the post:
http://lifeasweknowitbypaula.blogspot.com/2016/04/monday-special-features-8_25.html
Thanks for sharing your yummy looking recipe at this week’s party. See you again soon
Chery clafoutis looks delicious, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop. pinning .
This looks really good! Cherries are one of my faves. ?
The ingredients list is missing the eggs that are noted in the instructions. How many eggs? This is crucial for any custard based dish!
Yes, it’s 3 eggs. Not sure how I missed this, but I made the correction. So sorry.