My Mum's Summer Pudding Recipe

Serves 6

• 8-12 slices day old white bread
• 900 g of frozen fruit blackberries/raspberries/mixed berries but not strawberries
• 100g-170g white sugar

Mum adds 1 chopped green apple (per pudding) diced to make the fruit go further.

Rinse a 900 ml pudding basin with cold water. Trim the crusts from the bread slices. Cut a circle from 1 slice to fit the bottom of the basin. Cut enough wedge-shaped pieces to fit around the sides. Press bread in firmly to line the basin making sure there are no gaps. Reserve a few pieces of bread to cover the top.

Trim the fruits and put them into a saucepan. Add the sugar, cover with a pan lid, and cook gently for 5 minutes, or until fruit is softened. Turn hot fruits into the lined pudding basin. Cover the top with the remaining pieces of bread and put a weighted plate on top. Allow to stand overnight.

Remove the weighted plate and place a serving plate over the pudding. Invert pudding on to the plate and serve with cream.

Mum's tips:

1. Very little extra trouble to make two instead of one (recipe is for one).
2. If you add a little bit of extra fruit and sugar it will give you extra juice. (Sugar and fruit must be in the same proportions).
3. Any type of pudding basin can be used (Not sure if metal OK because of the acidic action of fruit on metal).
4. The pudding should come to about half a cm from the top of the bowl.
5. If the top layer of bread is still white add a bit more juice.
6. Then cover with two layers of glad wrap tightly. With weight on top put in fridge.
7. When ready to eat remove glad wrap, loosen gently with a knife and put a plate on top and invert.
8. However careful you are, there are always white patches and stain with juice.
9. Remaining juice put in a bottle in the fridge and pour over pudding to serve plus cream.

Update: Mum got the original recipe from Katie Stewart's Cookbook ISBN 0 330 28556 4 (1985)