Fresh off my first win in the November challenge, I return to try my hand at yet another Bake Club Challenge sponsored by Taste.com.au. I was pleasantly surprised when the nice people at Taste contacted me and informed me of my win. Yaaaay! I never win anything so this was really good news.
This all started out as a fun way for me to feature new things on the blog and to give me some semblance of focus … a gentle nudge in the right direction. But suddenly, now, after my win I want more. I won a free copy of ‘What Katie Ate: Recipes and Other Bits & Bobs’ by submitting a picture of my Bailey’s Chocolate Creams which was a recipe inspired by their website.
So this month I shall put in extra effort to present a good dessert. There are soooo many good ones to choose from on the Taste.com.au website and a lot of the time I get sidetracked. Frequently I feel like making them ALL, but for the purposes of sounding organised and in control, I have decided to go with panna cotta. I don’t think I have ever featured panna cotta on my blog before so this would be a good time to debut one.
Panna cottas are quite possibly the easiest dessert to put together for a dinner party or a summer soirée out in the back garden. These are make-ahead desserts and you can put them aside the night before and focus on the main meal on the day of. I remember thinking panna cottas were fancy-schmancy desserts that can only be found at high-end restaurants and hotel salons, when all it really is is cooked cream set with gelatine.
Today’s recipe is going to be copied exactly as how they did it on their website, no deviations, no personal twists. I really want to see how it turns out on its own. So you can either go to their website for the recipe, or simply follow the exact same one I have here.
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
- 500ml (2 cups) coconut cream
- 375ml (1 1/2 cups) pouring cream
- 55g (1/4 cup) white sugar
- 8 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
- 3 x 2g leaves gold-strength gelatine (see note)
- 250g strawberries, hulled, sliced
Lime syrup
- 110g (1/2 cup) white sugar
- 125 mls water
- 1 lime, zested, juiced
- Place the coconut cream, cream, sugar and kaffir lime leaves in a saucepan over low heat. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside for 30 minutes for the lovely kaffir lime flavour to infuse.
- Return pan to low heat and bring to a gentle simmer, then remove from heat. Meanwhile, soak gelatine in a bowl of cold water until softened. Using your hand, squeeze out excess water. Whisk gelatine into coconut cream mixture until dissolved. Strain into a jug and discard lime leaves. Pour into glass tumblers, martini glasses or even plastic cups for a more laid-back affair. If you use about 125ml (1/2 cup) per serve you’ll have enough for six. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until set.
- To make lime syrup, heat sugar and 125ml (1/2 cup) water in a small pan over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir through lime zest and 2 tbs lime juice.
- Just before serving, toss strawberries in the lime syrup. Top each panna cotta with a spoonful of the strawberries and a drizzle of the lime syrup.
I believe with every dish you make you can’t always follow the recipe to the tee. Sometimes the quality of the ingredients vary from region to region and this makes a huge difference. Personal preference also plays an important role … for instance, the recipe for the lime syrup called for two tablespoons of lime juice but to me that made a very sugary sweet syrup. So keep tasting and adjusting until you are happy with the product. To me, this lime syrup was the best component of the dessert … I absolutely LOVED it and am now scheming other ways to incorporate it into other dessert recipes. It is simply beautiful and bursting with summery flavours. This syrup needs to be in a cocktail or drizzled over a marscapone pie … oh, the possibilities!
Anyway, the panna cottas set really well and turned out beautifully the next day. Had to take time out and toss up over whether or not to use the strawberries with the lime syrup or just use plain syrup. In the end I decided to shut up and follow the recipe. Besides, the berries added much needed colour to the glasses on top of adding another flavour dimension. My top tip would be to be generous with the syrup because it really pulls everything together. So delicious.
~ Enjoy ~
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