Clafoutis is a French take on baked egg custard and, despite custard’s connection with stodgy school dinners, it is in fact a wonderful dish to round off a meal. The dessert has changed little since its creation in 19th-century France.

The trick to achieving a light clafoutis is to add lots of fruit. My favourite sweet clafoutis is one made with griottines (black cherries marinated in kirsch). Other soft fruits work well, however, such as raspberries, blueberries and apricots. Savoury clafoutis are also sometimes on the menu at Thornton’s. I serve courgette clafoutis with spring lamb and wild garlic sauce.

When I first cooked this clafoutis recipe at home for my parents, my dad remarked that he could get drunk on it. There certainly is a kick from the kirsch, but you can omit the alcohol if you like and the recipe will still work well without it.

Clafoutis can be cooked in a flan dish, but at Thornton’s we serve individual clafoutis, as indicated in this recipe.

It is delicious served with fresh vanilla ice cream as the cold of the ice cream contrasts well with the heat of the dish.

Warm cherry clafoutis with lemon sabayon

Ingredients, serves six
300g pitted, halved black cherries
80ml kirsch
sachet of gelatine
500ml milk
250ml cream
1 vanilla pod (split)
6 eggs
150g granulated sugar
100ml flour
5g melted butter as needed
5g granulated sugar as needed

Sabayon
5 eggs
75g granulated sugar
Juice of 2 lemons

The dish
Caster sugar as needed
Vanilla ice cream

Garnish
Whole black cherries
Sugared vanilla beans

Method: clafoutis
1. Marinade the cherries in the kirsch overnight. Dissolve a sachet of gelatine in water as per instructions on the packet. Set aside for a few minutes.

2. In a large saucepan combine the milk, cream and vanilla pod and bring to the boil.

3. In a small bowl combine the eggs, sugar and flour and whisk to incorporate. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add a quarter of the boiling liquid to the egg mixture, whisking constantly.

Pour the egg mixture into the rest of the cream mixture, turn the heat down low and continue to stir constantly until the mixture thickens to a loose pudding consistency. Discard the vanilla bean. Remove from the heat and cool in a basin of cold water.

4. Preheat the oven to 150C. Arrange six ring moulds 10cm in diameter on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush the moulds and sheet with melted butter and dust with granulated sugar.

5. Line the bottom of each mould with marinated cherries and pour the cooled cream mixture on top, barely covering the cherries.
Place in the oven to bake for 12 minutes, or until the custard is set and begins to bubble. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Method: sabayon
1. Fill a medium-sized saucepan with 5cm of water and bring to the boil.

2. Combine the eggs, sugar and lemon juice in a separate bowl and whisk to incorporate. Set the bowl into the saucepan, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.
Reduce the heat and continue to whisk until the sabayon is light and thickened. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To serve
1. Spoon some sabayon on a plate, set a clafoutis in the centre and carefully lift off the ring mould.

2. Sprinkle the entire dish with sugar and caramelise the sabayon and clafoutis with a propane torch if you have one, or quickly, under hot a grill.

3. Place a scoop of ice cream on top of the clafoutis and garnish with black cherries and a vanilla pod.

Kevin Thornton is a Michelin-starred chef and owner of Thornton’s Restaurant on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. www.thorntonsrestaurant.com