You’ve Probably Been Saying This Cherry Dessert’s Name Wrong Forever

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We’re in peak cherry season right now. So chances are, you’re seeing tons of cherry recipes pop up on Instagram, Pinterest, and your favorite food blogs. You might have seen a recipe for a dessert called a cherry clafoutis and wondered what it is, exactly. A clafoutis is basically like a giant pancake filled with fruit, traditionally cherries. The yummy French dessert is so simple to make; just pour a custard mixture over cherries, bake, and enjoy. But while it’s easy to prepare, if you don’t speak French, you might be pronouncing it all wrong. Sacré bleu!

So if you didn’t take high school French and you had to guess, how would you pronounce clafoutis? Probably something like klah-FOO-tees or klah-FAU-tis, right? Personally, that’s how I always read the word in my head when browsing cherry clafoutis recipes on Pinterest. I never dared to actually say my fumbled pronunciation out loud, because I knew I was wrong. And I certainly never dared to actually bake one; the shame of not knowing how to tell people what I made for them would be too much.

I was tired of not knowing (and I was really craving a cherry dessert), so I decided to do some digging to learn the real pronunciation of clafoutis. And just as I suspected, I was way off. The real pronunciation is: klah-foo-TEE. Now maybe that was obvious to you, but like I said, I didn’t take French in high school. I can barely order a croissant without stumbling.

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Now, you’ll be able to impress your guests with your French baking skills and your French pronunciation.

If you want to get extra fancy, you can say the whole thing en français: clafoutis aux cerises.

The dessert is traditionally made with cherries. But if cherries aren’t in season or if you’re craving a different type of fruit, you can also make one with blueberries, peaches, raspberries, apricots, or a combination of your favorite fruits.