As part of the celebration of Julia Child’s 100^th birthday, we offer one of Julia’s tasty dessert recipes: her Cherry Clafouti. You will have to prepare the dessert prior to listening to the program.

1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar, divided in half
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
3 cups cherries, pitted
powdered sugar (for garnish)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using a blender, combine the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour, and blend. Lightly butter an 8-cup baking dish, and pour a 1/4-inch layer of the blended mixture over the bottom. Set remaining batter aside. Place dish into the oven for about 7-10 minutes, until a film of batter sets in the pan but the mixture is not baked through. Remove from oven (but don’t turn the oven off, yet). Distribute the pitted cherries over the set batter in the pan, then sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Pour the remaining batter over the cherries and sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until the Clafouti is puffed and brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.

While swooning over this delicious dessert, listen to ‘Rabbit at Top Speed’ from Leonard Bernstein’s La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice and Piano (1949) performed live at Zankel Hall, NYC, January 2006 by William Ferguson, tenor and Kenneth Merrill, pianist. The song is performed first in English, then in French!

Leonard Bernstein – Rabbit at Top Speed (2:50)