London Calling!

Summer Pudding

The year and a half I spent in London, I worked at a couple of different places. Nearly every Saturday I would take the tube from my flat just off Sloane Square to Wimbledon, where the catering company I worked for was located. We did a lot of weddings and I would spend the morning helping cook whatever food we hadn’t prepared the night before and finish all of the Summer Puddings that we would be serving as an alternate dessert to the actual wedding cake.
If you’ve ever seen or had a traditional British wedding cake, you need a chisel and hammer to break through the royal icing which dries rock hard to protect the fruit cake that is below the surface. The word "pudding" in Britain has a completely different meaning than it does in the United States. Pudding simply refers to any dessert and does not have to be custard based.

This Summer Pudding is just fruit cooked with a little sugar, poured into a bread lined mold and refrigerated overnight. We used empty, 5lb coffee cans and round bowls to make the puddings and on Saturday mornings I would whip cream, sugar coat jewel-like red currants and decorate the puddings. I’ve never seen red currants in any grocery store in Los Angeles, so I finished mine with strawberries. While this is a super easy dessert, you do need to prepare it at  a day in advance.

Summer Pudding
About 3 1/2 pounds assorted berries, sliced. I used 2 1/2 of fresh strawberries and a pound of frozen mixed berries from Trader Joe's.
1/3 cup of sugar
firm sliced white bread, crusts removed


1 pint whipping cream
a couple of tablespoons of sugar (to taste)
1/2 tsp. of vanilla

Pudding after a night in the fridge

1. Line a bowl (I used a 1 1/2 quart pyrex bowl) with sheets of plastic wrap so that you'll be able to easily unmold the pudding. 
2. Trim the crusts of the bread slices and butter them on one side. Line the mold with the bread slices, cutting to fit all the gaps, buttered side toward the bowl.
3. In a saucepan, add berries and sugar and bring to a simmer. Cook gently for about 10 minutes, just until sugar dissolves and berries release their juices.
4. Fill the mold with the berries all the way to the top. (The pudding will be pressed and shrink a bit)
5. Top the berries with more buttered bread slices until the entire pudding is encased. 
6. Cover with plastic wrap, and a plate that's slightly smaller than the bowl. Weigh the plate down with some cans and refrigerate overnight.
7. Whip the cream until peaks form with sugar and vanilla.
8. Cover the whole pudding with the whipped cream. Finish with berries and mint.
9. To serve, just scoop it like a trifle or ice cream.

Serves about 10 to 12 depending on how big your portions are. I usually make it when I'm going to have a big crowd.