Ingredients

Serves 6

Prep: 45 min, plus 24-hour chilling

Cook: 15 min

400g day-old, thin-cut white loaf

250g blackcurrants, redcurrants or mix

220g raspberries

400g strawberries

100g blackberries, loganberries or blueberries

1 sheet fine leaf gelatine, approx 12x7cm

100g sugar

Squeeze of lemon

You will need 6 metal dariole moulds and 6 sheets clingfilm, approx 30x30cm

Method

Slice the bread thinly and cut off the crusts. Line the moulds with clingfilm, leaving a huge overhang. Use a 4cm cookie cutter to cut 6 bread discs for the base. Working on one pudding at a time, cut 2 slices of bread in half diagonally.

Line the dariole with bread: first the base, then fit the 4 triangles like a jigsaw, using scissors to trim the top. Use trimmings to plug gaps and cut 6x7cm discs for the lids.

Bring 200ml water to the boil. Keeping separate piles, rinse all the fruit. Strip the currants from their stalks. Set aside 6 small strawberries then hull the rest, cutting large fruit into quarters, medium fruit in half and leaving small fruit whole. Drop the fruit into the boiling water, one type at a time, and use a perforated spoon to scoop it quickly into a colander placed over a bowl. Blanch only half of the raspberries.

Scatter 50g sugar over the hot fruit. Stir the gelatine into the liquid drained from the fruit. Continue stirring until dissolved. Tip the fruit into this syrup, stir once with a wooden spoon or spatula and use a perforated spoon to lift the fruit directly into the bread-lined basin.

Gently pour the syrup between bowl and bread, taking care not to disturb. Place the disc of bread on top and dribble with any remaining syrup. Add the reserved raspberries to the cooking liquid with the remaining sugar. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and boil for 1 minute. Pass through a sieve into a jug, pressing down on the raspberries and under the sieve.

Top up the pudding so that the bread is drenched. Carefully fold the clingfilm over the top to cover and secure. Lay a saucer on top and add a can of beans or something similar to compact the

pudding. Chill overnight.

Open the clingfilm, place on a plate, quickly invert and drench with the reserved raspberry juice. Decorate with halved strawberries and serve with cream.

For a large summer pudding, which serves 6 to 8, proceed as above, using the same ingredients but adding an extra sheet of gelatine, and use an 800ml pudding basin. Be very generous with the clingfilm lining.

It's quite satisfying to work out the most effective, least wasteful way of lining the basin - I used 8 slices from a day-old, large white loaf - but do plug gaps; none will show when the pudding is ready.

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