These are marionberries, and below are olallieberries. See the difference?

It’s difficult. The olallieberries are slightly longer. (And the family tree of berry cultivars is fascinating, if you’re into that kind of thing.)

I wanted to wait until after the July holidays of American and French independence before posting about my favorite summer dessert that begins white, bleeds red, and sometimes turns bluish-purple, all while being quite British: summer pudding.

Put simply, summer pudding is quality bread soaked in tart berry juice, traditionally currants. At this moment in the summer, the dark berries at farmers’ markets are perfect—go for any in the blackberry family, and red or white currants.

I like to do these as individual summer puddings in ramekins of four or six ounces (or small bowls of that size); you’ll need a pint of berries for each one and a nice large brioche loaf or pain de mie will do for four to six puddings.

To make: Start by lining each ramekin with plastic wrap while simmering all the berries (try to include a few different types) and adding a tablespoon of sugar for each pint in a large saucepan for five minutes, until the berries break down and release liquid.

Spoon a tiny bit of juice at the bottom of each lined ramekin, then fit bread slices (crusts off, sliced into half-inch thick lengths) in a single layer at the bottom.

Cover with fruit and juice, add a layer of bread, add fruit and juice, then a layer of bread, and more fruit and juice on the top.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight with a weight on top of each to smush it properly (large tomato jars work well).

Unmold and serve with whipped cream, if you like, and a little additional syrup (in case you missed spots with juice).

I find people who dislike dessert like these because the puddings are less sweet and somewhat of an acquired taste, harder to love than the ubiquitous desserts of strawberries and blueberries in their customary dousing of sugar, and well worth the effort—

Related posts:

1. lobster pie and grape-nut custard pudding
2. sunshine, bread pudding bliss, and b.side’s
3. pppsst: spsp (summer pesto squash pasta)

1. Mica:
   July 18th, 2010 at 8:06 am

   I scrolled back and forth trying to discern the difference between the two berries. I did not succeed. I have so much to learn!

   Your summer pudding is gorgeous! How does it differ from trifle?

2. Kristen:
   July 18th, 2010 at 11:04 am

   Thanks, Mica :) Trifle, as I understand it, is three alternating layers of sponge cake, fruit, and whipped cream. I’ll make that at some point on kthread, but I love the smushage (technical term) of summer pudding more—

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Posted by Kristen Taylor on Saturday, July 17th, 2010, 9:00 am * Filed in Entertaining, Food. * Tags: kristen, kthread, pudding, summer, taylor. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.