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Autumn Bliss

Autumn Bliss

I worked this recipe out from scratch, experimenting in the kitchen with my friend, Brian, and I have to say I couldn't be more delighted with the results. My plan was to celebrate the wonderful variety of autumn raspberry after which the dish is named. I wanted a dish that acknowledges the change in the weather, the creeping autumn chill, and therefore takes the raspberry away from its usual summer association of chilled desserts and into the realm of hot puddings. It's really a three-way hybrid of English bread and butter pudding, French pain perdu and Italian ravioli! The only tricky bit is getting the seal tight around the edges of the squares of bread. I had to stop trying to do it with stale bread, which is what pain perdu ought to be made with, and use fresh. Then it's a doddle. Of course, once you've got the hang of it, you can fill this lovely pud with all sorts of seasonal goodies besides raspberries: Bramley apples, blackberries, plums, pears. But raspberries will prove hard to beat.


Ingredients:

Serves 2

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
2 tablespoons single or double cream
3 tablespoons milk
4 thick (1-2cm) slices of fresh white bread
soft butter
a couple of dozen raspberries
groundnut or sunflower oil for frying

Make a simple raw custard by lightly beating together the egg, egg yolk, caster sugar, cream and milk. Cut the crusts off the bread and spread a little soft butter in the middle of each slice (not to the edges, though, as it may prevent you making the seal). Pile the raspberries into the centre of 2 slices (i.e. on top of the butter), squashing them together a bit. Sprinkle a little caster sugar over them. Take the remaining 2 slices of bread and place them, buttered side down, over the first. Squeeze the edges of the bread together firmly, making a seal all around the edges - you can use a little of the egg custard, dabbed on with a finger, to help it stick. You end up with a bread 'cushion', like a giant raviolo, in which the raspberries are the stuffing.

Pour the custard mixture into a shallow dish or deep plate and lay the bread cushions in it to soak up the custard. Turn them several times, until well saturated. Heat a good centimetre of untainted fresh oil in a frying pan. When it is hot enough to turn a test piece of bread golden in about a minute, lift the eggy cushions with a spatula and slide them carefully into the pan. When the underneath is fried to a deep golden brown, turn them over and fry till the other side is done, too.

Drain on kitchen paper, then transfer quickly to warmed plates. Dust with a little more caster sugar and serve piping hot.