Fresh or slightly dried bread can become a full-fledged ingredient for various dishes: salads, puddings, rolls. Traditional English flavored berry pudding made with high-quality breads, berries and fruits is the perfect dessert for a hot summer.
For summer pudding you will need: 12 slices of high-grade bread (not too fresh and loose) without a crust, 250 g of black and red currants, 150 g of granulated sugar, 250 g of a mixture of berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries), 2 tablespoons of water.
For pudding with exotic fruits you need: lemon, lime and orange, melon, mango, pineapple, papaya.
The preparation of the dessert should start with the preparation of the base. Lay out a deep mold with a capacity of 1.25 liters from the inside with slices of bread. Before laying out the mold, it is better to lay the parchment paper or cling film on the bottom to make it easier to remove the pudding later. First, a bread disk, cut to the size of the bottom, is laid out, and then the side surface is successively. After trimming off the excess, trim the pieces of bread to the edges of the pan. Set aside the straightest pieces to cover the top layer of the berries.
Stir black and red currants with sugar in a saucepan, pour 2 tablespoons of water. Heat over low heat, stirring until sugar is completely dissolved. When the berries begin to give out juice evenly, cook for about 5 more minutes, then remove from heat. Cut the strawberries into quarters and combine with the other berries.
Moisten the bread slices well with juice, then fill it with berries. After placing the berries well, take them in. Top the berries with prepared bread slices and a tea saucer. Place the dish on a dish into which the resulting liquid will drain. Press down with pressure from above. The piece should be kept under oppression in the refrigerator overnight so that the fruit juice completely saturates the bread, giving the pudding an excellent shape and consistency.
After the time has elapsed, tip the pudding onto a serving platter, freeing it from the mold. Pour the juice from the dish over the dessert, especially those areas that are poorly soaked. Garnish the finished pudding with fresh berries.
Pudding with exotic fruits
Instead of summer berries, you can take hard fruits with bright pulp. Make a citrus-flavored syrup. Juice 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 lime. Cut the fruit into slices. Bring 300 ml of water and juice with orange zest to a boil, cover. Simmer for 30 minutes over low heat. Boil the filtered liquid with 100 g of sugar for 2 minutes. Put 500 g of chopped fruits in a slightly chilled syrup: pineapple, melon, mango, papaya. Continue cooking with the summer pudding recipe. Before serving dessert, decorate with fruit wedges and whipped cream.
You can cook pudding all year round with the following options:
Autumn pudding. Simmer the diced pears in the cider syrup for one minute until softened. Then add black currants and pitted plum quarters.
Winter pudding. Soak dried fruits (peaches, dried apricots, mangoes, figs, prunes) in apple juice overnight. Remove swollen fruits from juice and chop into pieces. In the same juice with grated orange peel, boil peeled apple slices until soft. Mix with dried fruits. Next, cook like summer pudding.
