I am not a big fan of sweets because I am very sensitive to the effects of sugar on my body. I can’t eat a lot of fruit either without it acting like regular ‘sugar’ and packing the pounds on. But this recipe is rather basic, and I LOVE blackberries (wild, along the roads in Italy, I picked ‘mora’ and ate as I picked). However, I don’t see the need for BOTH sugar and honey with the berries. I’d drop the sugar altogether and stick with just honey.
The reference to ‘pudding’ is very clearly not American pudding either! Adding bread constitutes the ‘pudding’ part of this Food Network version. It is something different than our ‘pudding’.
8 cups of blackberries (about 6 half-pints)
3/4 cup of granulated sugar – leave out
2 tablespoons of honey
2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon of juice
1 loaf of sliced white sandwich bread (or sliced brioche. Day-old or dried-out bread works best)
1 vanilla bean
1 cup of cold heavy cream
1 tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar.
In a medium saucepan, toss 4 cups of the blackberries with the honey, lemon zest, and juice. Bring to a boil, and reduce berries to simmer gently until the berries burst, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the other 4 cups of berries and let the mixture cool. (Save a few berries for the garnish)
Grease the sides of a 2-quart souffle dish (or something comparable, we don’t all have souffle dishes!) and line with plastic wrap. Remove crusts from the bread and line the bottom and sides of the pan with a single layer of bread, trim as needed to cover the entire dish.
Spoon half of the berry mixture into the dish, with juices. Cover with another single layer of bread. Spoon the rest of the berry mixture on top of the bread layer, and cover that with another layer of bread to completely seal it. Cover with any juice left, and plastic wrap. Cover with a small plate and weigh it down with a large heavy can. Refrigerate the pudding for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
To serve, split vanilla bean in a bowl with seeds. Add the cream and confectioners sugar and beat until peaks form.
Put the pudding dish into a sink filled with an inch of warm water, to loosen the pudding. Remove the weight and plastic wrap from the top. Put a bigger plate over the top, and invert the pudding. Remove the rest of the plastic wrap. Top with whipped cream, and garnish with a few fresh blackberries.
image and recipe courtesy of FoodNetwork.