Black Forest Pudding
A unique alternative to traditional Black Forest Pudding recipes, forgoing cream and chocolate ingredients to create a dairy-free / vegan version. Uniquely also, the recipe is low in total fat and saturated fat.
- 1 h 30 min
- Difficult
- 6
Ingredients
Sunflower Oil (for greasing) 5 ml
Blackberries 300 g
Dark Cherries (halved and stoned) 300 g
Small Black Seedless Grapes 200 g
Golden Caster Sugar 140 g
Blackcurrants 200 g
Blueberries 200 g
Creme de Casis (4 tbsp) 40 ml
White Bread 400 g
Instructions
1. Brush a 1.5 L pudding basin with oil, if you have not a 1.5 L pudding basin, use a smaller one and serve any fruit that will not fit on the side. Line the basin with a double layer of cling film, overhanging the basin at the top.
2. Put the blackberries, cherries, grapes and sugar in a saucepan with 3 tbsp water. Cover and gently heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has melted and the fruit is syrupy.
3. Add the currants and blueberries, cover and cook gently for 2 mins more until the fruit is just softened. Take off the heat and cool.
4. Strain the fruit into a colander set over a bowl. Leave for 5 mins to drain well, then stir the cassis or Ribena into the captured juices.
5. Trim the crusts from the bread slices and discard, losing as little bread as possible.
6. Then use a pastry brush to spread a little of the berry juices over one side of each slice. Cut a circle from 1 slice (or 2 semi circles from 2 slices) that will neatly cover the base of the basin, and push in juice side down.
7. Reserve some bread so that you have enough to cover the top of the basin, then halve the remaining slices into fat fingers, trimming to the correct length to line the sides of the basin.
8. Then, juice side down, work round the basin, overlapping the edges of the bread slightly and pressing them to stay in place, until the basin is completely lined with bread. Patch any gaps with scraps.
9. Reserve a couple of spoonfuls of fruit to serve, then spoon the remainder into the bread lined basin, squishing the fruit down to level it.
10. Reserve 150 ml of the juices with the reserved berries, then pour the rest into the basin, concentrating on pouring it around the edges to soak into the bread.
11. Jigsaw the reserved bread to neatly cover the top and seal in the fruit, this time placing it juice side up. Loosely cover the top of the basin with cling film.
12. Find a small plate that will fit snugly inside the basin so it is in contact with the pudding and add 4 x 400 g cans to weigh it down. Chill overnight with the reserved juice and berries.
13. To serve, unwrap and invert the basin onto a serving plate with a lip to hold any juices. Lift off the basin, holding the cling film down tightly as you pull to help you remove it. Peel off the cling film round the pudding. If you have any white bread patches visible, spoon over some juice to colour it.
