A Late summer pudding

I saw this the other day and thought why not. It works really well and at the moment it lloks like there will be a bumper crop of plumbs, blackberry’s and apples soon so try this recipe. You make it the same way you would a summer pudding but with autumn fruits, made I should have called it autumn pudding.

you will need

750g/1lb4oz plums, cooking apples and blackberrys

120g/4½oz caster sugar

2 tbsp sloe gin

½ -¾ medium white loaf bread

Some butter

Now you will need a  850ml/1½pint pudding basin, brush it with melted  butter it and then put it in the fridge.

Now take your fruit, you want more plumbs and blackberries than apple but a mix of all three.  Then de-stone the plumbs peel and core the apples and put them in a pan add the caster sugar and toss the fruits in the sugar. Then add the black berry and the slow gin and place on a gentle heat, you do not want to stew the fruits but just cook them gently so they remain whole.  Very occasionally stir it so it does not stick or burn. Once the apple is soft remove from the heat and set to one side.

Take your bread and remove all the crusts then get the basin that you butters out of the fridge . Now take one slice of bread and cut into a circle to fit the bottom of the pudding basin. Dip the bread in and let it soak up some of the juice and place wet side down in the basin. Now cut the other slices in half and line the side walls of the basin in the same way wet side to the wall of the basin.  You need to just over lap the bread so you do not get any gaps.

Now fill the bread lined basin with the fruits. Then cut some more bread and form a base for the pudding. Now cover the basin and seal it as tight as you can. You need to chill it for about 12 hours or a day if you can.

When you are ready to serve just loosen the bread from the edge of the basin then place a plate on the basin and turn it up. Tap the basin to release the pudding and then serve with whipped cream or crème fraîche.