The Summer Pudding Club Book Book

The Summer Pudding Club is the follow-up collection to the bestselling The Pudding Club Book, with which Keith and Jean Turner reduced the life expectancy of a delighted public. The new book, with its inevitable, if unavoidable, emphasis on fruit, nevertheless manages to repeat the same luscious, artery-closing formula. Within the first few pages the terms of engagement are made clear, with a recipe for the heavenly Scottish pudding "Cranachan", that sublime mixture of oatmeal toasted with sugar, whipped cream and whisky (in this case, a few raspberries are thrown for the sake of respectability). Things then go from bad to worse. A very fine "Chocolate Bombe" is accompanied by the injunction: "Don't be tempted to buy cheap chocolate"; while the recipe for "Gooseberry Fool" rigorously (and correctly) insists that the gooseberries be mashed rather than pureed before being folded into the cream. The Turners' version of "Queen of Puddings" uses a layer of fresh raspberries instead of jam between the breadcrumb and almond custard and the meringue. The book climaxes with "Chocolate Pye", in which (you'd better sit down) a chocolate pastry crust encloses a chocolate cream filling in its turn decorated with whipped cream, almonds and chocolate. Don't say you haven't been warned. --Robin DavidsonRead More