Pud your back into it! (White Chocolate Panna Cotta with Strawberry Liqueur Coulis and Brownie Squares)
I love pudding (that's one of the many reasons why I'll never be a size 0), but I often find that a lot of restaurants let themselves down with desserts. Often, puddings are bought in, and I can never understand why most menu staples like pastry, cake and mousse are bought when they are so easy to make.
I've has a very stressful few weeks, so I decided to make an ultimate comfort food pudding, with all my favourites and covering all aspects on how to cope with stress - chocolate, alcohol and cake!
This pudding is easy to put together, tastes amazing and is great if you want to impress your friends at a dinner party.
The main star of the show is the white chocolate panna cotta - a creamy, smooth and rich centre piece, worthy to be a pudding in it's own right. I decided to compliment mine with some squares of chocolate brownie and an alcoholic strawberry coulis. Just to be poncy, I added some edible gold to the tops of the brownies!
I already have my brownie recipe on the blog, so I'm going to focus on the panna cotta and coulis.
Panna Cotta
Ingredients
As you'll see, I've left my panna cotta in the ramekin, this is so I could pour the coulis on top. This is purely down to my presentation style. If you want to remove the panna cotta from the ramekin, dip the base and sides into some warm water to loosen it.
I added edible gold leaf which is available to buy in Waitrose. It's best to place it on a firmer part of the plate, otherwise the gold leaf can melt or break up, hence why I placed it on the brownie.
You'll also see on my plate I've decorated it with white chocolate. Just melt some white chocolate in bowl, over a saucepan of hot water and melt it. Put in a piping bag and decorate your plate. I did mine a few hours before, so I could ensure it had set and wouldn't smudge when plating up, but you can also serve it straight away.
I've has a very stressful few weeks, so I decided to make an ultimate comfort food pudding, with all my favourites and covering all aspects on how to cope with stress - chocolate, alcohol and cake!
This pudding is easy to put together, tastes amazing and is great if you want to impress your friends at a dinner party.
The main star of the show is the white chocolate panna cotta - a creamy, smooth and rich centre piece, worthy to be a pudding in it's own right. I decided to compliment mine with some squares of chocolate brownie and an alcoholic strawberry coulis. Just to be poncy, I added some edible gold to the tops of the brownies!
I already have my brownie recipe on the blog, so I'm going to focus on the panna cotta and coulis.
Panna Cotta
Ingredients
- 150ml semi-skimmed milk
- 500 ml double cream
- 110g good quality white chocolate, broken into pieces
- 30g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (1 tsp if using essence or 1 pod with seeds scraped)
- 4 gelatin leaves (soaked in warm water for 10 minutes and then squeezed dry)
Method
- Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan on a medium heat for around 8-10 minutes, or nearly simmering.
- Reduce the heat to low, add the white chocolate, sugar and vanilla and stir continually until the chocolate has melted and all the ingredients have combined.
- Take the pan off the heat, and add the gelatin.
- Stir until the gelatin has melted and put to one side until it has completely cooled.
- Pour into ramekins and leave in the fridge for 6-7 hours or until set firm.
Boozy Strawberry Coulis
Ingredients
- 250g frozen strawberries
- 30g sugar
- 50ml water
- 2 tbsp of strawberry liqueur
Method
- Put the frozen strawberries and water in a pan on a medium heat and leave for around 15 minutes, breaking them up and stirring every few minutes.
- Once the strawberries are starting to soften, press down on them with a wooden spoon to squeeze the juice out of them.
- Add the sugar and stir, continuing to squeeze the strawberries for a further 5 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and using a stick blender, blend the mixture.
- Pass the mixture through a sieve, discarding any pulp left behind.
- Stir the liqueur into the sieved mixture.
- Leave to cool and then store in the fridge until use.
Plating Up
As you'll see, I've left my panna cotta in the ramekin, this is so I could pour the coulis on top. This is purely down to my presentation style. If you want to remove the panna cotta from the ramekin, dip the base and sides into some warm water to loosen it.
I added edible gold leaf which is available to buy in Waitrose. It's best to place it on a firmer part of the plate, otherwise the gold leaf can melt or break up, hence why I placed it on the brownie.
You'll also see on my plate I've decorated it with white chocolate. Just melt some white chocolate in bowl, over a saucepan of hot water and melt it. Put in a piping bag and decorate your plate. I did mine a few hours before, so I could ensure it had set and wouldn't smudge when plating up, but you can also serve it straight away.
Tips, tricks and techniques
- I use semi-skimmed milk in this recipe - normally you would use full fat milk but with the addition of white chocolate I find the panna cotta too rich and hence the semi-skimmed milk. If you were making a plain vanilla panna cotta, you would use full-fat milk.
- I've written that you need good quality white chocolate, this is because white chocolate is a lot harder to cook with and can split very easily, the better the quality, the less likely it is to split.
- I also prefer to use frozen fruit for cooking, it has a fresher taste, is often cheaper and locks in the juices and flavours. They work particularly well with a coulis as they have a lot more juice in them.
- My coulis was quite thick, because I didn't want the brownie to become soggy when eating it with the coulis. To make it thinner, just add a small amount of water at a time, until you have reached your desired consistency.
*Apologies for the blog lacking in posts, I have been super busy this month!