Clafoutis

The Clafoutis is a typical dessert of the Limousin, a region of south-central France whose territory is situated around the Massif Central and that includes 3 departments: Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne

 The original Clafoutis is only made with cherries, although today quite often the same name is used also for other desserts which in fact should be called Flaugnarde and that are prepared with the same method but  with different fruits such as apricots or plums, apples, pears, blackberries, peaches, plums, etc..

The term Clafoutis derives from the occitan dialect verb claufir, that means to fill and come from Latin clavum ficere = to fill of points similar to nails ( that are in this case the sweet cherries).

image from Wikipedia

The Clafoutis or Clafouti is a cake made with cherries and pancakes batter.
It is a very popular dessert in France but it's not rare to find others similar to it, as the cake called millard in Auvergne.

Merveilles, Carnival fritters

Everywhere fritters are the Carnival sweets.
In the south of France, in Aquitaine they are called Merveilles and are quite similar to what we call Chiacchiere in Italy .

It’s a simple recipe, but there are several variants with different yeasts, different liquor and more or less sugar.

Ingredients: 1/2kg flour, 100gr sugar, ½ small bag of yeast, 10gr butter, 4 eggs, orange scent water, a pinch of salt, oil for frying, powdered sugar.

In a bowl, mix flour with sugar, orange water, yeast and a pinch of salt. Add eggs and then the melted butter.
Mix very well to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
Knead until it detaches from your hands, adding a little flour if needed and then put it to rest for 1 or 2 hours in a cool place, covered with a sheet.
To make fritters, heat the oil for frying and lightly flour the work surface.
Take a small amount of dough at a time (a little more than a walnut) and roll it out very thinly with a rolling pin. Cut portions of various shapes, square, rectangular or even sticks and put them immediately to fry. It's traditionalyou to make lozenges engraved in the middle.
The frying time is fast cause the Merveilles must have a light golden color. To make they swell well, it is necessary a very thin dough and an oil temperature hot but not smoking, because this would affect the result.

image from the blog 123Merveilles

As you remove them from the oil, drain immediately the Merveilles on a sheet of absorbent paper.
Garnish with powdered sugar and serve warm or cold.