This is a rich, French dessert guaranteed to be sinfully delicious. The batter puffs somewhat during baking.

Macerate two cups of fresh halved pitted dark sweet cherries in cognac. This simply means soaking the halves at room temperature for a few hours. Canned or frozen dark sweet cherries, drained and soaked in any decent brandy will also do just fine. You might also substitute a small amount of liquor, like Kirsch, for the brandy.

Batter Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1 1/3 cups of milk

4 eggs, beaten

4 tbsp. of vanilla sugar (sugar stored with cut vanilla beans, or use plain sugar and 1 tsp. of vanilla extract)

zest of two lemons

¼ cup of sour cream

Directions:

Set the oven at 375ºF

Use a Quiche pan (porcelain pie pan with vertical fluted sides) or glass pie pan

Mix the vanilla sugar and the lemon zest with the eggs. Mix in the sour cream. Mix in the flour. Slowly add milk and mix. The batter will be very thin.

Pour 1/3 of the batter into the baking pan and bake for 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and gently place the drained cherries on top in single layer. Add the remaining batter. Bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Serve the dessert hot with a generous dollop of whipped cream.