Summer Pudding

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!