This was always a favourite in my childhood – I clearly remember the bread lined glass bowl with the deep red juices seeping in and everything weighted down with a plate sitting in the fridge. With anticipation of the tastes to come.The joy of this is not only is it totally delicious, but you can make it a couple of days in advance, and turned out it will impress everyone….. if it hangs around for long enough. Serve it with thick double cream – naughty I know but everyone needs treats some time and you can comfort yourself by totting up all the fruit you’re using.
This is Mary Berry’s recipe for summer pudding. There are plenty more recipes out there but they are all basically the same – I like the fruit proportions in this one and the addition of the liqueur. Just make sure your fruit is fresh and firm and you allow enough time for the fruit to soak into the bread.
200g Strawberries
200g Blackcurrants
200g Redcurrants
200g Raspberries
2 tbsps Creme de Cassis liqueur
Alternatively use the same weight of the best mixed berries and currants available.
150g caster sugar
8 slices day old white bread from a square loaf with crusts removed
8” pudding basin.
Instructions: Line your pudding basin with a cut piece of bread in the bottom and bread tightly fitted round the sides.
Prepare the fruit – hull the strawberries and halve if they are very big, de-stalk the currants
Put the currants in a pan with the sugar and 75ml of water. Heat gently to allow the sugar to dissolve and the juices to begin to run and then cook until the fruit is tender.
Remove from the heat and add the rest of the fruit and the liqueur, stirring well.
Spoon the fruit and half of the juice into your bread lined bowl. Cover with your remaining bread slices. Keep back the remaining juice.
Stand the bowl (still upside down of course) on a place or dish in the fridge and weigh down with a saucer and a weight. If you don’t have kitchen weights (and who does these days?) use a heavy tin can. The pudding really needs to be weighted down so don’t miss this step as it’s what makes the fruit sink into the break. Chill for at least 8 hours.
Carefully turn your pudding out onto a flan dish or plate. You may need to run a palette knife around the edge to get it to release. Then spoon the remaining juice over your summer pudding.
Like all of the very best desserts trial and error will make yours perfect so don’t be surprised if you don’t get it totally right the first time. This is one you can make over and over again and then you’ll be able to put it together in a flash. You can of course make a larger one, but this is better compacted into a smaller bowl, so make two if you want to.
So many desserts are over complicated with too many ingredients– this is one of the very best and needs no alterations, so make it just like it says and serve on a hot summer’s day. Enjoy.
