Summer Pudding

[jackal10]

Its Julyand in the fruit cage the raspberries and the redurrants are ripe and ready to pick:

Yellow raspberries (Fallgold, not pruned); red raspberries (Glen Moy - early)

and that means SUMMER PUDDING!

Summer Pudding is one of the best and easiest English Puddings.

I think Summer Pudding should be just raspberries and redcurrants, although I will allow a few black cherries since they add a certain stickiness to the juice. Only heathens add blackcurrants.

Gently stew the fruit, about twice as many raspberries as redcurrants, and as much sugar as needed, until the juice runs, but a lot of the fruit is still whole.

Meantime line a large pudding basin with thick cut white bread (a cofyn). About the only good use for the white spongey stuff supermarkets sell. You will need a whole loaf. The glory of the pudding is the juice soaked into the bread

Pour in most of the fruit mixture, and encourage it toi soak into the bread. Doesn't matter of there still white spots - we will pour coulis made from the remains of the fruit over it before serving. The rest of the recdurrants will turn into redcurrant and port jelly, later.

Put a bread lid on it, press down then put it in the fridge overnight to set, under some weights. A bowl to catch the overflow saves mess and waste

Tomorrow I'll turn it out, pour the reserved coulis made by whizzing and sieving the remaining fruit, decorate and serve with heavy cream or icecream...

Edited July 1, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Tess]

Looks delicious!

Now, where am I going to get some currants in Chicago? I see them so rarely.

[Jensen]

I made a summer pudding last weekend, using challah bread (cut into strips rather than just with the crust trimmed), raspberries, and plums off my tree. That's the beauty of summer pudding...you are supposed to use what is local and abundant as long as it produces enough juice.

I served mine at the whippet races on Saturday and only one other person there (the Englishwoman) knew what it was. Despite that, it was the first empty plate on the lunch table (although I was the only person that put cream on mine, everyone else ate it "naked").

(Edited to remove extraneous paranthesis.)

Edited July 1, 2005 by Jensen (log)

[therese]

Meantime line a large pudding basin with thick cut white bread (a cofyn). About the only good use for the white spongey stuff supermarkets sell. You will need a whole loaf. The glory of the pudding is the juice soaked into the bread

←

Not officially summer pudding, but this is also great made with angel food cake (also from your grocer's aisle, of of course). I use raspberries and/or blackberries, currants being hard to find in these parts.

[Tess]

Thanks for these ideas!

What kills me is that there was a currant bush in my garden when I moved in, but it died. For a couple of summers, I did have a certain number of currants and I did make summer pudding. Although, even then I varied the other ingredients.

[ludja]

Can't wait to see the finished pudding.

The red currants look so beautiful. My mom has a currant bush back East but it's no help out here... I can buy currants during a short window out here but they are very dear. The currant-port jelly sounds excellent as well.

Thanks for posting the recipe and photos.

Edited July 1, 2005 by ludja (log)

[sanrensho]

jackal10: What is the approximate ratio of sugar to fruit that you used?

Thanks.

[M. Lucia]

I first discovered this dish in the cookbook "Cooking for Madam." I like to serve it with creme anglaise. Off-season I use those bags of mixed frozen berries to make the filling, though I adore currants when I can get them.

[jackal10]

I used about the same volume of golden sugar as that of redcurrants, so roughly a third of the fruit. However the amount of sugar you need will vary depending how ripe the fruit. No substitute for tasting.

You can use any fruit in season, of course. If you can't get red currants then just use raspberries. Strawberries don't work well, they tend to go slimy. Autumn pudding uses apples and blackberries, winter pudding dried fruits. Other variations are Dr Johnson's Pudding, which is rhubarb and custard filling, Het's Purple Mountain (blackcurrants, sponge cake, topped with whipped cream snow), and Wyvern (Colonel Kenney-Herbert writing in Culinary Jottings from Madras (1881) reccomends plantains with raspberries or manges and pineapple.

I have a theory (written up in "Wilder Shores of Gastronomy", edited by the late Alan Davidson and published by Ten Speed Press ISBN: 1-58008-417-6 http://www.tenspeedpress.com/catalog/all/item.php3?id=1479) that its derived from the Charlotte style of puddings - for example apple charlotte is apple puree in a bread cofyn, then baked (butter the bread). Very good it is too. The earliest mention of Summer Pudding is around 1900, and before that it seems to be called Hydropathic or Malvern Puddding (Malvern being a hydropathic spa), for which there are published recipes going back to about 1840. Charlottes are older, Queen Charlotte was the wife of Queen George III in 1761, and fruit baked in bread cofyns go back to the earliest cookery.

Edited July 2, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[anzu]

I read somewhere (don't remember where - mind like a sieve ) that it is better to use somewhat stale bread for making summer pudding.

Yes? No? If yes, why?

[jackal10]

Slightly stale bread adsorbs moe of the delicious fruit juices

Pudding, as turned out

Pudding, napped with the reserved coulis, as part of the bring a desert buffet (cell phone pix)

Edited July 2, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[kitwilliams]

Gorgeous, jackal!

Question: What make and size of pudding basin did you use and approximate total weight of fruit?

Thanks!

[Chufi]

it looks beautiful.

Do you have a pic of the inside (when it's cut)? I always wonder if it holds together or not.. does is cut into neat slices or does it collapse on the plate?

[jackal10]

This was a large about 4pt size. I used about 2lbs of raspberries, 1lb or currants, 8oz sugar, a few stoned cherries, and a whole white loaf.

It does mostly hold together when sliced, but not neat slices, The bread sort of merges into the fruit. If you want restaurant desert neatness make indiviual portions, but then the ratio of bread to fruit changes unless you use very thin bread.

I tried to get pictures of it cut, but I only had my cellphone and they came out very blurry - too blurry to see anything.

Edited July 3, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Adam Balic]

Jack - that looks wonderful and will definately inspire me to use the Scottish fruit that is arouns at the moment. A quick question. Do you think that it would be possible to use gooseberries to make a similar dessert? I was thinking that gooseberry and elderflower miight be nice, but I have no yardstick to judge by.

[jackal10]

I'm sure you could use gooseberries, if you cooked them first. Might be a bit pippy though, which is why the traditional thing to do with goosberries is pie or even better gooseberry fool. I like mine made with condensed milk...

[Woods]

Do you grow redcurrents in the US? Maybe I've always lived to far south but I rarely see them and then they are prohibatively expensive.

Its Julyand in the fruit cage  the raspberries and the redurrants are ripe and ready to pick:

Yellow raspberries (Fallgold, not pruned); red raspberries (Glen Moy - early)

and that means SUMMER PUDDING!

Summer Pudding is one of the best and easiest English Puddings.

I think Summer Pudding should be just raspberries and redcurrants, although I will allow a few black cherries since they add a certain stickiness to the juice. Only heathens add blackcurrants.

Gently stew the fruit, about twice as many raspberries as redcurrants, and as much sugar as needed, until the juice runs, but a lot of the fruit is still whole.

Meantime line a large pudding basin with thick cut white bread (a cofyn). About the only good use for the white spongey stuff supermarkets sell. You will need a whole loaf. The glory of the pudding is the juice soaked into the bread

Pour in most of the fruit mixture, and encourage it toi soak into the bread. Doesn't matter of there still white spots - we will pour coulis made from the remains of the fruit over it before serving. The rest of the recdurrants will turn into redcurrant and port jelly, later.

Put a bread lid on it, press down then put it in the fridge overnight to set, under some weights. A bowl to catch the overflow saves mess and waste

Tomorrow I'll turn it out, pour the reserved coulis made by whizzing and sieving the remaining fruit, decorate and serve with heavy cream or icecream...

←

[sanrensho]

As suggested, I added sugar to taste and the ratio of fruit to sugar was probably 6:1 or higher. We served ours sliced on a pool of creme anglais. Since we still have half left, I think we'll try it with whipped cream tomorrow and ice cream the day after that.

[Misa]

That pudding looks gorgeous! I love the bright color.

[bleudauvergne]

Wow those currants take me back...

Thanks so much, your pics are beautiful and on the table that pudding looks great!!

[Abra]

Oh, I so happy that I stumbled across this thread this morning! It's 4th of July here, and strawberry-raspberry shortcake with cinnamon mascarpone cream was on my menu. But this thread reminded me that I had a pint of red currants in the fridge from my CSA box this week, and no plan for what to do with them. That, a flat of beautiful raspberries grown here on the island, and a loaf of my husband's favorite squishy white bread in the kitchen, lead me to an instant menu change. The pudding's now in the fridge, where it will have only 10-11 hours to rest, but I'm sure that will be fine, since it's not a very large pudding. And owing to the smallish amount of currants I had, the coulis will be more of a kiss than a puddle, but I'll make up for that with a mascarpone cream moat. I'm excited - this is my first summer pudding. I'll post a picture if it's presentable.

[Tess]

Yes, more summer pudding porn, please!

I am going to make a summer pudding with currants this season, if it kills me.

[Abra]

Oh, I'm in love with Summer Pudding! Mine doesn't look quite as perfect at jackal's, but it was as delicious as can be. We devoured every bite - the huckleberries were only for garnish, by the way. The cream is Vietnamese cinnamon whipped mascarpone cream.

A glorious treat!

[kitwilliams]

This thread is going to be my obsession this summer...summer pudding porn is right!

Abra and jackal...gorgeous, simply gorgeous.

Mmmm. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Santa Monica Farmer's Market, here I come!

[jackal10]

That looks a mighty fine pudding! Love the cinnamon mascarpone