I went round a friend's house for dinner a couple of weeks ago and she made a great summer pudding for desert, so I thought I'd try one myself...
Gently heat some fruit and sugar for a few minutes until it starts simmering.
Whack the heat up for a minute or so until there's plenty of juices coming out of the fruit, then remove from the heat.
Get some thinly sliced bread and let it go a little stale. This is so it holds its shape once it's soaked in the fruit.
Remove the crusts and cut into a series of elaborate shapes so it lines a small bowl.
Soak one side of the bread in the fruit juices, then line the bowl with the soaked side on the *outside*.
Fill the bowl with the remaining contents of the saucepan, make a lid out of some more bread then compress down with a saucer and some weights (a bag of sugar works). Put in the fridge overnight.
To turn it out, run a knife around the edge of the bowl, put a plate over the bowl then invert. Don't do this too early before you're ready to serve it as it might just collapse into a pile of splodge.
Serve with cream. This is my new favouritest thing ever.
I'm writing this post retrospecitvely, so I can't remember why there are no eggs in the photo. I must have forgotted to get them out of the fridge for the line-up shot. Anyway, the first step is to heat some sugar with a bit of vanilla to form the syrup. Burn the sugar to a rich brown colour, then pour into the bottom of a dish and turn it to cover the entire base.
Blitz all the remaining ingredients together, then pour into the cooled dish on top of the solidified sugar syrup.
Cover with tin foil and chuck it in the oven for a while until it's just about solidified (don't worry - it'll firm up as it cools). For extra points, bake in a bain marie so it dries out less.
To turn it out, run a knife around the edge of the dish, then place a plate upside-down on top. Turn the whole thing over and watch as the syrup runs over the top of the dessert. Yum.
