Description
This silky and creamy panna cotta has a delicate pandan and vanilla flavor. It makes for an elegant dessert but is surprisingly easy to put together.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1/2 cup whole milk, divided
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin powder (I use Knox gelatine)
- 1/2 cup fresh (or frozen and thawed) pandan leaves cut into 1-inch pieces (see Note 1)
- 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
Instructions
- Bloom gelatin. In a small bowl, add 1/4 cup milk. Sprinkle the gelatin powder over the milk (see Note 2). Let sit for 10-15 minutes while continuing with next steps.
- Blend pandan leaves. In a blender, add pandan leaves and remaining 1/4 cup milk. Blend for about 2 minutes until most of the leaves are finely chopped, scraping down side of blender as necessary.
- Stir. Pour milk-pandan mixture into a small saucepan being sure to get as much of the chopped pandan leaves as possible. Stir in cream, sugar, and vanilla paste.
- Steep. Bring cream mixture to a bare simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes.
- Add gelatin. After 5 minutes, bring mixture back to a bare simmer (don’t let boil). Remove from heat then add in gelatine mixture. Stir until gelatine is dissolved.
- Strain. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean bowl, pressing down on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the leftover pandan pulp.
- Pour. Divide panna cotta mixture among four ramekins or glasses. (see Note 3)
- Chill. Refrigerate panna cotta until set, about 6 hours. Once set, cover the ramekins with some plastic wrap if you won’t be serving the panna cotta right away.
Notes
- For those who prefer to measure by weight, 1/2 cup cut pandan leaves is 10 grams or 3/8 ounce. You can also substitute the pandan leaves with 1/4 teaspoon of pandan extract paste. If using extract paste, skip the blending step and add all the milk and the extract paste to the pan with the cream.
- Sprinkling the gelatin powder over the milk ensures all the gelatin powder will dissolve or “bloom” properly.
- Use caution when pouring hot liquids into glassware. To reduce the risk of cracking your glassware, stir the panna cotta mixture in a metal bowl placed in an ice bath until it is cool (but not set) then pour into glasses.
- Panna cotta can be stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
