Berries are starting to appear in the markets here.... Which means Summer Pudding... Which, technically, is a bread pudding....
Bread Pudding.
In my youth and inexperience, I could not imagine a poorer excuse for a treat.
A sickly sweet concoction of soggy bread and stale, dried currents, I viewed it more as a punishment than reward.
Even smothering it in chocolate sauce could not make it edible (but, at least, you could carefully scrape the chocolate off and have something!). Pouring rum over it helped... eventually.
Our British friends were always in raptures over this Bread Pudding or that one. My epiphany came one warm July evening. It was the first time we were in London in summer and our friends were talking non-stop about Summer Pudding.
They were calling restaurants before reserving a table to verify that Summer Pudding was on the menu and checking on the recipe to make sure it was up to snuff.
I became intrigued.
It's only made a few weeks out of the year, at the height of summer. It was heaven! No one told me that it was the dreaded 'bread pudding'.
I thank the summer gods that I didn't have that information or I never would have tried it...and I would have missed out on summer heaven.
This is so good that I, a confirmed, take-no-prisoners, chocoholic, would give up (gasp!) chocolate.
Really! It's that good.
Summer Pudding 
1 cup fresh strawberries, quartered
1 cup fresh blueberries (myrtles)
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1 cup fresh red currants
1 cup peeled, finally chopped apple (adds pectin to help set)
1/3 cup sugar
6 - 8 slices white bread, crusts trimmed
Combine apples and sugar in medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over
medium heat, stirring until sugar starts to dissolve and apples get
tender. Add strawberries and blueberries and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add raspberries and currants and cook another 5 minutes. Fruit should
be tender and releasing their juice but still holding a bit of shape -
may need another few minutes.
Drain fruit, reserving the juice
separately. Line a medium bowl (4 - 5 cup capacity, 1 - 1 1/4
quart/litre - ideally everything just fits.) with 4 - 5 slices of the
trimmed bread, being careful to cover it completely but not overlap.
You'll have to cut pieces to fit - kind of like a jigsaw puzzle - or
push into shape.
Drizzle 1/2 cup of juice over the bread, covering as
completely as you can. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Spoon in the drained
fruit. Cover the top with another layer of bread - 1 slice, then trim
another to fit corners. Drizzle 1/4 cup of juice over all.
Refrigerate any remaining juice.
Lay cling film over the top and put a
plate on the film - directly laying on the pudding and covering as
completely as possible without touching the sides of the bowl. Put a
weight on the plate - a can of vegetables, box of salt, whatever, about
1 lb. Refrigerate overnight - or, at least, 8 hours.
To serve, remove
from fridge, remove weight and film and let stand 15 minutes. Run a
knife between the pudding and the bowl. Put a serving plate on top and
flip it over to unmold on the plate. Use a bit of the reserved juice
to cover any 'white' spots on the bread. Serve with Vanilla Yogurt
(Healthier Version) or premium Vanilla Ice Cream (Decadent Version),
with the remaining juice on the side. Serves 4 - 6. Or serves one,
4 - 6 times......
Note: almost any berry can be used or exchanged - even cherries could be added.
Notes for everyone: Berries are so incredibly good for us, chock-a-block with antioxidants and vitamins, we really should eat as many as we can.... This is the perfect excuse!
Notes for diabetics: As this has bread, which is a carbohydrate, the carbohydrates in the rest of the meal should or may need to be reduced or eliminated. The refined sugar works out to less than 1 tablespoon per serving - we consider that perfectly acceptable; you may not.
