British desserts: Summer Pudding

Summer Pudding (or Summer Fruit Pudding) is a traditional British sweet dish made of sliced white bread, layered in a deep bowl with fruit and fruit juice. The bread and the fruit are left to mix together in a bowl before serving, and then turned out in the shape of the bowl. The dessert was most popular from the late 19th to the early 20th Century. However, there is no clear record of its origin.

Making Summer Pudding is much easier if the bread is somewhat stale. This helps the fruit juices soak through the bread, which makes the pudding more pleasant. Summer Pudding can be served with cream.
Typical fruits used in Summer pudding are: Raspberries, Strawberries, Blackcurrants, Redcurrants, Whitecurrants, Blackberries, Cherries and Blueberries.