Summer Berry pudding

 

I love berries, but sadly over here in the Maldives, they are so expensive and so  I sacrifice my love for berries to my children as they devour them in a flash. So this is one dessert I love to make so the whole family can enjoy some berries without the fight over who gets how many berries. Frozen berries are cheaper than buying a small punnet of blueberries, although it is getting harder for some now.

This dessert is actually a very easy recipe to make and the only expensive item you need is the frozen berries because the outside dome is made of stale bread. 

So after looking up recipes from Mary Berry and a few other British chefs, the whole concept of the pudding is to cook the berries to release the juices and then dip slices of day-old bread in the juice and arrange the bread slices, juice dipped side facing out, in a cling film lined bowl. 

Then once the whole bowl is lined with the bread, the berries are added into the centre and then topped with more berry juice dipped bread slices, drizzle any leftover juice on top, cover with cling film and place a small place on top and a heavy can as a weight. Pop in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours. 

fill with berries

cover the top with more slices of bread

place a plate on top with some weights

To serve,  remove the bowl from the fridge and then invert it onto a serving plate. Slice into wedges and serve with some sweetened whipped cream.  If you want you can even make single serving slices by using small bowls instead of one large bowl.

Yield: 6

Author: Nammi

Summer berry pudding

Ingredients

• 530g frozen berries ( that is about 1 and 1/2 packets ) *see note below
• 3/4 cups of water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 10- 12 slices of old bread

Instructions

1. Place half of the berries into a saucepan along with the water and sugar.  If using fresh berries add all of them. I used frozen berries which tend to get mushy when cooked for too long so I started with half the needed amount first. 
2. Now once it starts to cook and release the juices, simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add the rest of the berries and cook another 5 minutes and then remove about 1/4 cup of the juice to a shallow bowl. 
3. Take a 3-cup capacity glass bowl, and line it with cling film, the cling film should overlap the sides of the bowl. 
4. Remove the crusts from the bread, and cut a circle from one slice big enough to cover the base of the bowl.  Cut the rest of the bread into rectangles.  Take the circle of bread, dip it in the reserved berry juice, and place it on the bottom of the bowl, the juice side facing down.  
5. Take the rectangle bread slices and dip one side of each slice in the berry juice and arrange them, juice side out, around the bowl making sure the bread slices overlap one another.  
6. Once the sides are covered with bread. Spoon the berry mixture into the bread-laden bowl.  Top with the remaining bread and berry juice dipped side facing up. Spoon any leftover juices all over the pudding.
7. Bring the over-lapping cling film sides in so the whole pudding is well wrapped in cling film. Place a small saucer or plate on top and a heavy can on top of it. 
8. Place in the fridge and chill for 3-4 hours ( at least). 
9. To serve, whip some cream, about 1 cup, with a few teaspoons of icing sugar till soft peaks, not stiff peaks, and spoon this into a bowl. 
10. Take the pudding out from the fridge, remove all the weights and plate, unwrap the top and carefully turn it onto a serving plate. 
11. Cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream or even vanilla ice cream.

Notes:

I used frozen berries, a packet says it contains about 400g but when measured it comes less than that. SO I measured my berries and used about 1 and a half packets of frozen berries. You can mix fresh and frozen berries even or use fresh berries if they are available. If you cant get a berry mix, use half of a frozen strawberry pack and 1 pack of frozen blueberries as it is the blueberries that give the colour 

If you cant get blueberry mix, try this instead, chop up half of frozen strawberries and cook in lacqnour berry juice, instead of the water mentioned. Then stir in the remaining frozen strawberries or fresh strawberries and cook a nother 2 minutes and then use to make the filling.

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