SUMMER ON A PLATE

When I first got married making a summer pudding was a labour of love.  Supposedly heavy weights needed to be to piled on top of it and it had to be left in the fridge overnight before you could turn it out!  But now with the help of a recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine it can be done in a jiffy - unbelievably the recipe says ready in 30 minutes

 

I have no link but this will give you the gist - it is really straightforward.

 

To give you the three puds above or one large one  put two ounces of caster sugar into a pan with two fluid ounces of water and a pound of summer fruits and stir over heat to dissolve the sugar.  If you are using strawberries and raspberries add them once the sugar has dissolved.  Set aside for 10 minutes to give the juices time to release.

 

Sieve the fruit and saturate five slices of cheap white bread in the juice and mould them round your pudding basin, saving just a little for the lid.  I use my mini basins as I feel it looks nicer when they are served - however although they have always turned out perfectly they were just a little bit stubborn this time - always the way when you want to take a photo!

 

Pile the fruit into the basins - you can use any fruit but this time I  used all my blackcurrants from the freezer and just a few raspberries for a big hit of vitamin C  ( and we still picked up the lurgy that was doing the rounds!)   Their tartness made the pudding more enjoyable.  Then top with the remaining bread.

 

Hey presto a few hours later I loosened the sides of the pud with a knife  and we had a scrumptious pud which tasted like it had just come off the bush!  Single cream is the only accompaniment in my opinion.