We are a pudding family. There is something satisfying about the word pudding. It brings connotations of comfort, of tempting things for the palate, rich and delicious. Dessert suggests something elegant, delicate, sober: a sweet bite to end a meal. Dessert just doesn’t do it for me.

Our family goes for desserts for special occasions and Sunday brunches. We don’t have them every day, so when we do, we want it all: comforting overindulgence at its finest – no fancy pastry nonsense here, though we don’t do the heavy steamed stuff either. We have a number of recipes that are family favorites to consider and a waiting list of cookbook recipes to try so that puddings displace the main course as the focus of discussion and decision making .

The occasion dictates the main course: roast lamb for Easter, turkey and ham for Christmas, there are no dilemmas there. However, selecting just a few puddings from the family repertoire is an agonizing process. Christmas and New Year’s together ease the dilemma… what we don’t have for Christmas, we can make for New Year’s Eve, but other times giving up a particular favorite recipe is just too hard. We often end up with a choice of four puddings (although, before you get too horrified, we usually feed twelve or more people) and, as a result, feel stuffed to the gills afterward, as greed inevitably wins out over hunger. caution and all four have to be sampled

Two of our family’s staple recipes come from my mother-in-law, who as a mother of six on a limited budget had to be very inventive to feed her family. El tonto de guayaba (guava puree mixed with condensed milk and cream) is one of her recipes that ranks high on the must-have list during the winter when guavas are in season. Choccie pudding is a year-round must-have, a chocolate custard poured over vanity cookies that soak it up and smooth deliciously into a velvety batter.

I have proudly managed to add one of my family pudding recipes to the must-have list: summer pudding. My mother still makes it, often with blackberries picked from the hedges, as well as the more traditional redcurrants and raspberries. Here in South Africa we have a different palette of berries to work with and most of the time we use young berries, blackberries with some strawberries (strawberries alone don’t work, you need the tartness of some of the darker berries). Here is the prescription:

summer pudding

1 loaf of slightly stale white bread
About 1 kg of mixed berries: blackberries, raspberries, young berries, blackberries,
red currants the choice is yours. Apple can be added if berries are missing.
Sugar

Put the fruit with a generous pinch of sugar in a pan and gradually bring to a boil. (You can cook them directly from frozen over low heat.) The softer fruits are done at this point, so watch for apples that need more time to soften. The amount of sugar depends on how sweet the fruit is: look for a slightly tart fruit with juice that is sweet but not too cloying. Cut the bread into thick slices, remove the crust and cover a pudding bowl with it. It has to fit well, but don’t crush it. You can make a patchwork of pieces with funny shapes, the important thing is that there are no holes. Reserve three slices for the top. When the fruit has stewed, use a slotted spoon to transfer the fruit to the bread-lined bowl. Most of the juice is left behind, but save it to pour over the pudding later. Fill the bowl with the fruit and cover with a tight layer of bread. Place a plate or saucer on top and weigh it down so that the fruit compresses and the juices soak into the bread. Leave in the fridge for at least a few hours, better overnight. Make it into a serving dish, with the extra juice poured over any bits of white bread still showing. Eat with plenty of cream.

Now our main concern on our small property is establishing enough fruit trees and berry plants to ensure a potential year-round supply of pudding in our freezers, but perhaps that would make them less special. The seasonal aspect of guavas and berries means excitement when they come back into season, gluttony for a few weeks until common sense sets in. Then we keep a supply in the freezer for some special treats later in the year, the season ends and the next one follows. A pudding for each season, a season for each pudding.

Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock