Friday, July 18, 2008

Easy, make-ahead bread pudding is English summer specialty

The source for today’s recipe was a surprise. It was me. Well, uh, me in a past life. When I worked as a food columnist for the Boston Herald, my first ‘real’ job after college, my mom kept a scrapbook of my articles. Going through that book the other day I came across an article I had written for the Sunday section of the Herald that featured three recipes from England – “a country where berries and fruits grow with unmatched flavor, and cream is so thick a spoon can stand in it…” Ah, I could really sling it in those days.

Along with recipes for Peach Fool and Lemon Flummery, there was an easy recipe for Summer Pudding. We didn’t need a lot of step-by-step instructions back then – common sense took us through it. And there's no servings yield - guess they felt anyone could figure that one out.

Here’s to nostalgia and fresh fruit and keeping it simple!

ENGLISH SUMMER PUDDING

1 quart berries
3/4 cup sugar (more or less according to taste)
Slices of bread

Cook berries with sugar a very little water until the juice runs freely. Line a suitable bowl with slices of bread, placing slices close together so that there is no space between them.
Pour into lined bowl the fruit and juice and cover with more bread. Put a plate on top and let pudding remain in refrigerator until the next day. Unmold and serve with thick cream.

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