Video guide to making Summer pudding
Hi, I'm Lisa and I'm going to show you how to make Summer Pudding. It's a simple British classic dessert and it's perfect to make when red berries are in abundance.
Dissolve the sugar
So in front of me, I've got 150g of golden caster sugar, which I'm going to add to my pan, and five tablespoons of water and I've also got one tablespoon of cassis; now that is optional, you can always add another tablespoon of water instead. I'm going to get my pan on a low heat and slowly dissolve the sugar and once it's completely dissolved, I'm going to turn the heat up and reduce it down so it becomes thick and syrup like. This is going to take around six to seven minutes.
Add the currants and berries
So I'm using redcurrants and blackcurrants and I'm going to add them to the heated syrup and they're going to burst and release all that flavour and colour.
When the berries start to burst, that'll take about 30 to 45 seconds, take it off the heat and leave it to cool for around 15 minutes and then you can add the remaining fruit.
OK, so here I've got 1kg of summer berries. I've got juicy raspberries, blackberries and strawberries and I'm going to add this to my pan. Give that a little mix and I'm going to leave this for around 20 minutes to release all the flavours.
Line the pudding basin
So whilst that's doing its thing, I'm going to line the pudding basin. I've got eight slices of farmhouse bread and I'm going to cut the first slice into a square and line the bottom and I'm going to fan the remaining slices around, just going to push that down so it's nice and firm. And I don't really want any gaps so you can gently push it down and fan it round. If you have any excess at the end, that's fine because we can trim that. All the way round, pressing it down as you go so it's nice and secure.
Spoon in the fruit and compress down
If you've got any gaps, use some of your bread to patch it up. I've got a slotted spoon, which I'm going spoon in the fruit and in between, I'm going to compress it down because it needs to be quite compact. I want it right up to the top and push it down. It's really important you push it down.
Drizzle juice and cover top
So what I'm going to do now is grab a spoon and drizzle some more of the juice on top, just a couple of tablespoons. And then what you need to do is get your remaining two slices of bread and completely cover the top.
Chill in refrigerator
So this needs to chill in the fridge for around five hours. Before I do that, I'm going to fit a saucer on top and I'm going to weigh it down with some cans because it's going to compress all that fruit and the juices are going to seep into the bread. I'm just going to grab a shallow tray and place it in, just in case there is any overspill. And that is ready to go in the fridge.
Sieve remaining fruit
Right, so now I'm going to sieve the remaining fruit and catch the juice in the bottom of my bowl, which I'm then going to chill and use for dressing the Summer Pudding.
I've got some syrup here that's been chilling in the fridge for 12 hours, along with my Summer Pudding, and I'm going to use a palette knife to release around the sides. So I just slide that in gently all the way round. I'm doing this so it helps it release it and it should slide out easily onto my serving plate.
Preparing Summer pudding
So I've got a pretty serving plate which I'm going to use. I'm just going to invert it on top of the pudding and turn it over. And I can see I've got a few patchy bits, which is fine because I've got a pastry brush which I'm going to use the syrup to paint over and fill in any of the white patches.
What you can do, for a really indulgent surprise, is add a big dollop of clotted cream in the middle, but do make sure the fruit is completely cooled first.
Decorate with fresh fruit
So that's looking really good, I've filled in all the white patches and it's a really beautiful, vibrant colour. Now I'd like to spoon over some of the fruit and to finish off I'm actually going to use some fresh fruit for some extra flavour, texture and decoration.
So there you have it, Summer Pudding bursting with seasonal fruit. Absolutely delicious.