I’ve seen lots of fresh cherries in stores of late. There’s something that I really like about cherries. I think they are absolutely beautiful as a fruit – always perfectly rounded and glossy and just ripe. However, unless you are very organised in your kitchen (like my sister) and have a cherry de-stoner, then you need to be prepared to bake a cherry clafoutis when you are not expecting any visitors.

Cherries will stain badly. No matter how carefully you try to pop the stones out, cherry-stained fingers is not a look that you need with your newly applied manicure. I must remember to put a cherry de-stoner on my Christmas list. Oh, and a manicure!

Fresh cherry clafoutis

3 large eggs

125g (5oz) caster sugar

50g (2oz) cornflour

50g (2oz) rice flour

½ teaspoon of gluten-free baking powder

210ml (7floz) crème fraîche

450g (1lb) cherries

Butter/margarine and sugar to line dish

Icing sugar to dust

1 Preheat the oven to gas mark five/190°C/375°F. Grease a 20cm/8in pie dish and sprinkle with sugar.

2 Lightly whisk the eggs with the sugar by hand for approximately one minute until mousse-like.

3 Sieve the flours and baking powder together. Add this to the egg mixture and whisk, then stir in the crème fraîche.

4 Prepare the cherries by washing, removing stalks and coring them to remove the stones. Put the fruit in the prepared dish and pour over the batter.

5 Cook in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer comes out dry.

6 Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Recipes by Denise O’ Callaghan from her book Recipes from my Gluten-Free Kitchen (Mercier Press). Denise is the founder of Denise’s Delicious Gluten-Free Bakery, whose product range is available across Ireland from the major supermarkets, artisan food stores and the online store at www.delicious.ie. CL