Yum!! Recipe??

You line a pudding basin with brioche bread with the crusts cut off -- do a better job than I did of fitting the pieces together -- LOL -- then you take 2 pounds of berries and 1 cup sugar and heat them in a saucepan until you have some juice and the berries are somewhat cooked. Then you pour them on top of the bread. You make a "lid" for the basin with more bread. Then you put a plate on top of the bread lid, add weight (I used a couple of vegetable cans) and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Unmold and serve the next day. The berries recommended were raspberries, blackberries and blueberries and currants but I can never find currants. I didn't use strawberries because to me they're a different texture than the other ones. It really is easy peasy!

That looks so beautiful, particularly in that setting! I will definitely have to try this. Thank you!

Traditionally it's ordinary bread....brioche is a recent food for Brits. I bet yours was delicious.

man, that looks sooo good. I can almost taste it up here, one state away in Iowa ...

Martha, how does your recipe compare to Ina Garten’s Summer Pudding recipe? Is it pretty much the same? I’ve made summer pudding twice. The first time I followed Ina’s recipe to the letter almost. I could not find brioche so the woman at the bakery suggested that I use challah instead. I thought it was very sweet. The second time I made it, I had some berries in the fridge that needed using, so I winged it. I used Sara Lee White Whole Wheat Bread and cut back on the sugar. It wasn’t DH’s fav so I’ve never made it again.

It's quite different --

Here is Ina's:

• 1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3 half-pints fresh raspberries, divided
• 2 half-pints fresh blueberries
• 2 tablespoons framboise (raspberry brandy)
• 1 loaf brioche or egg bread (1 to 1-1/2 pounds)

Combine the strawberries, sugar, and 1/4 cup of water in a large saucepan and cook uncovered over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Add 2 cups of the raspberries and all the blueberries and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches a simmer, and simmer for a minute. Off the heat, stir in the remaining raspberries and the framboise.

Slice the bread in 1/2-inch-thick slices and remove the crusts. In the bottom of a 7-1/2 inch round by 3-inch high soufflé or baking dish, ladle about 1/2 cup of the cooked berry mixture. Arrange slices of bread in a pattern (this will become the top when it’s unmolded) and then add more berry mixture to saturate. Continue adding bread, cutting it to fit the mold, and berries. Finish with bread and cooked berries, using all of the fruit and syrup.

Place a sheet of plastic wrap loosely over the pudding. Find a plate approximately the same diameter as the inside of the mold and place it on top. Weight the mold with a heavy can and refrigerate. Remove the weight after 6 to 8 hours. Cover the pudding with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Just before serving, run a knife around the outside of the pudding and unmold it upside down onto a serving plate. Serve in wedges with rum whipped cream.

Rum Whipped Cream (Serves 8)

• 1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon dark rum

Whip the cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. When it starts to thicken, add the sugar, vanilla, and rum. Continue to whip until it forms stiff peaks. Serve cold.

And here is mine -- it's an English recipe. A lot simpler and no strawberries.

And no ladling the juice onto the bread and mine is not layered -- it's just bread all around with berries in the middle. But the framboise sounds good as does the rum whipped cream!

SUMMER PUDDING

2 pounds of mixed berries (use any combination of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)

1 c. sugar

8 to 10 slices good white bread, with crusts removed (I used brioche)

Wash and rinse the fruit and remove an stems and leaves. Put in a saucepan, add the sugar and cook over low heat, stirring frequently untl the sugar has dissolved.

Grease a 7 cup pudding bowl (if you don’t have a pudding bowl, a mixing bowl would work) and stand it on a plate. Line the bottom and sides with all but 3 slices of the bread. Make sure there are no gabs between the seams -- trim the slices so that they fit together exactly.

Pour the fruit mixture into the bowl over the bread and cover the top with the remaining slices of bread, which should also be fitted together so that there are no cracks.

Cover the top of the bowl with a flat plate that fits neatly inside the rim and put a heavy weight on top of the plate. (A unopened can of vegetables works well) Refrigerate overnight.

Before serving, remove the plate and run a knife gently around the inside of teh bowl. Turn the pudding onto a serving dish. The fruit will have completely saturated the bread and it will be a wonderful dark purple color.

Cut into slices and serve with lots of whipped cream.

Neely -- that's what I liked best about. it -- the juice soaked bread!