Dessert Recipe: Vanilla Panna Cotta with Passion Fruit Jelly

As I'm typing this blog right now, it's raining cats and dogs plus it's rather chilly outside. I had a sudden craving for a dessert. Maybe a cup of hot cocoa will do, but I feel that I have been chocolate overload for the past few weeks. 

So, this time, I promise you that it'll be less messy and does not require much cleaning up. {phew..i hear a sound of relief.. ;)}. I've decided that my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer gets to take a rest for this weekend. Apart from that, part of me thought "what a wonderful time to catch up on some shut eye" or maybe "why not make panna cotta?"

To be honest, I miss making my vanilla panna cotta, and I usually make my panna cotta with raspberry jelly with fresh raspberry in the jelly. Not that the panna cotta on it's own is already divine, {slurps} I just like the idea of adding a little hint of kick of sourness to balance off the full creamy-soft, melt in the mouth texture of vanilla panna cotta.This time, I've decided to try to make my vanilla panna cotta with passionfruit jelly since I still got a couple of passionfruit left in the fridge.

If you have been a follower of my blog, I believe you may notice how I LOVE any form of berries be it raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, black berry, cranberry, lingonberry or anything citrus. Apart of lemon, I do love my peaches and passionfruit. I just love the natural fruit sweetness and a hint of sourness in the fruit. The taste just pops in your mouth, making it so appetizing; and am sure will tempt you to have a second helping.

For the best vanilla panna cotta, I've always stick to this one single recipe. Everytime I make them, it turns out divine, and I assure you this panna cotta recipe will not fail you. It's rich and creamy in texture yet at the same time the panna cotta just melts in your mouth. In my opinion, this is a perfect panna cotta for any season. The recipe that I religiously use everytime is adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Recipe Book.

Recipe:

Yields approx 4-6 glasses/ ramekins depending on the depth and size of your mould.

**For a large crowd, all you need to do is double or triple the meassurements below.

Ingredients (Vanilla Panna Cotta)
adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Recipe Book

2 tsp gelatine powder
1/4 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup fresh or full milk
300ml (1 1/4 cup) thickend cream
1/2 -1 tsp vanilla extract

Note: If you have fresh vanilla beans, you may substitute the vanilla extract with it. Will only need 1 vanilla bean, slit the vanilla and scrape out the beans. Don't throw away the vanilla bean and store it in a jar of caster sugar. You'll then have made yourself vanilla sugar ;).

Prepare vanila panna cotta:

1. Sprinkle gelatine and sugar over combined milk and cream in a small saucepan.

2. Stir over low heat, without boiling until the gelatine and sugar dissolve.

3. Add in the vanilla extract or vanilla bean. Strain into a jug, let it cool to room temperature before pouring them into prepared glass. Pour about 2/3 -3/4 cup full.

4. Chill for 2-3 hours, or until panna cotta is set.

Note: If you have ramekins and like to pour out the panna cotta onto a serving plate, then grease your ramekins with unsalted butter. For this step, you will have to prepare the jelly flavour of your choice before the panna cotta. Chill the jelly for 2-3 hours or until jelly is set, before preparing the panna cotta.

Ingredients (Passionfruit Jelly)

1/2 cup passionfruit juice
1 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp gelatine powder

Prepare passionfruit jelly:

1. Combine passionfruit juice, sugar and gelatine into a small saucepan. Stir over lowheat, until dissolve.

2. Let cool to room temperature or place it in the fridge for about 15 mins to help the cooling process, making sure that it has not hardened to jelly stage. Once liquid is cool, with a soup spoon or table spoon, gently pour onto panna cotta.

3. Chill panna cotta and jelly for another 3-4 hours or until jelly is set.

Feel free to experiment: Instead of passionfruit juice, you may use cranberry juice and toss in some fresh raspberry. Alternatively, you may use instant jelly powder. Jelly flavours that in my opinion goes well with panna cotta, are straberry and raspberry. Try to avoid orange/ lime flavoured instant jelly powder.

That is it! Hope that I kept my promise to the end here, as there will be very little cleaning up required >.<.

Enjoy your every spoonful of panna cotta topped with jelly. Till then..

xx