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New post on British Food: A History
Summer Pudding
by buttery77
Summer pudding is one of the best and one of the most surprisingly versatile puddings
there is. It’s also great fun to make and seeing as the first soft fruits crops are coming in, I
thought I’d share my recipe with you. Before I do though, I should get the uninitiated up to
speed on this quintessentially British dessert.
Summer pudding is typically a mix of red summer soft fruits lightly poached and set in a
pudding basin that has been lined with berry juice-soaked white bread. For many, the
thought of cold soggy bread makes them feel a little queasy, but they shouldn’t because
the texture is not as one would expect; it is soft and giving and nothing like the texture of
soggy bread in hot broth, for example. One way it is versatile, however, is that you can use
other things in place of the bread, such as slightly stale slices of madeira or pound cake.
Indeed, this is the way I prefer to make it because this way, you quickly dip the cake in the
juices (otherwise it just breaks apart) unsoggy and much more pleasing in texture, rather
like the base of a trifle, though a less vibrant colour. It’s swings and roundabouts isn’t it.
The other way in which it is versatile is in the fruit you can use. There are many who are
purists who insist you use 100% raspberries, for others there must be at least 50%
redcurrants, and some think there is no place for the strawberry. These people are all
pudding fascists. I’m not picky and I go for what’s in season at the time: gooseberries, red,
white or blackcurrants, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, whatever.
The summer pudding goes back to the nineteenth century as far as I can see, the earliest
mention of something resembling it popping up in an American publication from 1875. It
describes a hot pudding consisting of currants and sugar steamed in a basin lined with
bread. I’ve also found a British ‘midsummer pudding’ that is also hot but uses a suet crust
and is – oddly – more recent. A cold pudding made in the manner we know and love today
appears around the turn of the twentieth century under the curious name of ‘hydropathic
pudding’, so called because it was introduced to ladies at health spas as a low-calory
alternative to regular stodgy suet puddings.
I have also found other recipes for autumn pudding and winter pudding, that have
swapped the summer fruits for stewed apples, pears and dried fruit or blackberries,
sometimes switching white bread for brown.
This is my recipe and it makes just one small pudding, unlike most other recipes that
make a giant one using a re-mortgage worth of redcurrants, so this is the recipe for those
who do not grow their own. In fact, all you should need are two or three punnets of soft
fruit.
Serves 4:
300 g ripe soft summer fruits (raspberries, blackcurrants, red or white currants,
blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries etc)
80 – 100 g caster sugar
A shot of an appropriate liqueur such as Chambourd, optional
2 or 3 slices slightly stale bread, crusts removed, or one stale madeira or pound cake, cut
into 7 to 10 mm slices
To serve: clotted cream or lightly whipped double cream
Rinse the fruit, cutting any large fruits such as strawberries and gooseberries into halves
or quarters as appropriate. Scatter in the sugar, but don’t make things too sweet,
especially if using cake rather than bread. However, if you are using green gooseberries
you many want to shake in the full quota. Pour in the liqueur if using, stir, cover and leave
to macerate overnight.
Next day, put the contents of the bowl in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir gently to
dissolve the sugar, trying not to squish the fruit too much. When dissolved, bring to a boil
and simmer gently for two minutes, then turn off the heat. Set aside to cool down.
Cut your slices of cake into enough pieces to line a 450 ml / 1 pint pudding basin. I cut
rectangles that taper slightly at one end so that they fit nicely.
Dip each piece of cake or bread in the juicy warm fruit and press into the inside of the
basin. Repeat with more slices until you have covered the sides, then cut a circle to fit in
the bottom. Be careful if using cake at this point as they are prone to break when soggy.
Now spoon the fruit mixture into the pudding, packing everything in well with the back of a
spoon.
Cut more cake or bread to make a lid, press down hard with fingers, then place a saucer on
top with a suitable weight and place in the refrigerator overnight.
