

Summer Pudding
Updated on Saturday, July 22, 2017 at 12:53PM by
Mark Scarbrough
We first learned about summer pudding when we were still living in New York City. At least once a week, we had breakfast at a chi-chi French cafe, awash in strong espresso and attitude. We were such regulars, they once actually let us order eggs for breakfast. Dégueulasse!
There was a literary salon at the front table. (Of course there was.) One of the participants was also known for her food obsessions. Each week, she made her way to us, the food writers, before settling into the salon and chipping Derrida quotes at her peers. One hot summer morning, she blew in, hair plastered to her forehead, and came in for her usual landing at our table. "Have you made your summer pudding yet?" she exclaimed.
Taken aback, we mumbled something about "no." Undeterred, she launched into a description. It didn't involve French literary theory. And it sounded pretty good. So we set out to discover more about this old-fashioned dessert.
We quickly became mavens. If you love bread and jam, if you search for quick summer fruits desserts, if you're a fan of berries--well, this one's for you. It's like a no-fuss bombe: the pectin in the berries sets the "pudding" (layered sandwich bread, in fact) so you can cut the thing like a cake. It's the very best reason to whip cream. Here's the recipe: