Looking for a light no-bake summer dessert that still looks impressive?
We've been waiting to try Summer Pudding until we finally had some summer weather. The dessert is a British classic and consists of bread layered with berries that have been cooked in sugar, water and a little bit of liquor. The bread and berry mixture goes into the fridge the day before. The whole operation took only about 30 minutes (and that's with the photos)!
We used Ina Garten's recipe for Summer Pudding with Rum Whipped Cream, but we also glanced at David Lebovitz's Summer Pudding Recipe for assembly inspiration.
We deviated a bit from Ina's recipe. After reading an article in the Guardian about how the British dessert should never be made with egg-y bread, we abandoned Ina's recommendation of brioche in favor of white sliced bread. In retrospect, the sliced bread seemed a little chewy. In order to achieve a stale consistency, we should have put it in the oven to take some of the moisture out. We didn't have a souffle dish so we used a sauce pan that had similar measurements. The pudding seemed a little flat when it was unmolded, and we wished that we had added a couple of layers to make it taller.
Summer Pudding is usually served with some cream, and the rum whipped cream of Ina's recipe got rave reviews from our tasters. It perfectly cut through the tart berries. We left the pudding in the fridge until just before serving so it was nice and cool. This would be the perfect dessert for a Fourth of July party. It certainly looks the part!
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That looks particularly unappealing to me. But it sounds lovely...
Gorgeous! I'm always on the lookout for nice berry desserts, and this looks like a great addition. (Not to mention, a great way to use up some of the mountain of bread I'm producing lately!)
http://www.abreadaday.com
@ A Lady in Red
I have to say that Ina's looked a lot better than mine!
OMG! I just found this recipe last week on epicurious after trying to figure out what to do with the mountain of blueberries and strawberries from my CSA. It was super easy to make and it's so nice to make a great summer dessert that does not require turning on the oven. And delicious too! We're making it again this weekend.
I agree with Lady in Red that this doesn't look so great. Kind of like soggy bread. But if you say it's good I may give it a try.
@Klem- It tasted fresh and delicious. I wasn't 100% pleased with the bread texture. So if I did it again, I would go with Ina's recommendation to use a brioche or make sure that I was using stale bread. Everyone at the party I took it to, loved it, and I asked for serious feedback :)
@Amy - I checked some other summer pudding recipes. The bread ranged from broiche to challah to Pepperidge Farm white bread to angel food cake. Some recipes said to toast it. And everyone seemed to love it so we may try it here soon. Thanks.
as someone who grew up eating many a bread puddings cooked lovingly by my nostalgic english father... don't kid yourselves, this is a carbattack.
pass.
go for berries and fresh full fat double cream instead. perfect, simple, special in it's own right. no bread required.
I've actually made it with some "hard" breads, such as Italian or ciabatta slices, which ends up having just a little bit of texture left even after the bread has been soaked.
I've made this a few times and the bread makes all the difference. Use a potato bread and let it dry out (or put in in a 200 degree oven for an hour or so). Another way to present it is to make individual servings in ramekins and turn them out onto plates--personally I think it looks much nicer this way.
For all the berry lovers - try making a summer berry terrine with champagne, jello and all sorts of berries. It is the most heavenly dessert for summer and soooo easy to make. It will need a bit of sugar to make it to your liking.