This layered mango panna cotta is an absolutely delicious yet easy to put together dessert. A perfect way to use mangoes during summer and wow your guests.
I love panna cotta as a dessert. It is an easy to put together dessert, and always loved by everyone. What’s not to love- a luscious creamy pudding that you can prep in advance. Plus, it tastes great with fresh ripe fruits like strawberries, cherries, peaches and in this case mango.
Panna cotta is also easily adaptable to fit many dietary restrictions. It is gluten free in its most simple form, and with a few easy dairy replacements can be made vegan too.
So, what is Panna Cotta?
Panna cotta is an italian dessert, made from warming cream just enough to dissolve sugar and gelatin. It is served chilled, and is super easy to make. Panna cotta can be a very light, soft pudding using milk and fruit puree, or a rich, thick pudding using mostly cream. The basic core ingredients are inexpensive, and yet it tastes luxurious and looks beautiful.
Wikipedia cites the origins of panna cotta to a Hungarian woman in the early 1900s, though there is also a mention of a dish in an 1879 dictionary made of cream cooked with gelatin and molded. Whatever the origins, panna cotta is one dessert you should have in your recipe cards.
How do you make Panna Cotta?
Many are under the wrong impression that panna cotta is a complicated dessert. It isn’t. There are very few steps in the preparation of panna cotta, and the only way you can screw up is if you don’t dissolve the gelatin properly.
The steps to make panna cotta are pretty simple.
- Warm the cream in a saucepan.
- Add sugar, and heat the cream till the sugar dissolves. (Here is when you can get creative by infusing the cream with vanilla beans, or different spices or adding coffee or any other flavor)
- While you are warming up the cream, soften the gelatin in a cold liquid.
- Once the gelatin blooms, you add that to the warm cream mixture, making sure there are no lumps.
- This mixture is then poured into molds, and allowed to set.
- You can serve the panna cotta in the molds itself, or unmold and top it with your favorite toppings. Fresh fruit makes a lovely pairing with the creamy panna cotta.
The hardest part about making panna cotta is achieving the proper consistency and texture—it should be silky smooth and just firm, with a gentle wobble. Getting the cream to gelatin ratio helps in that. For every cup of cream, 3/4 tsp-1 tsp gelatin is the ideal ratio to get a good texture.
Different Variations to Panna Cotta
I have previously shared a panna cotta recipe with roasted strawberries, and panna cotta with roasted peaches and an oat crumble ( a recipe video). You could make a chocolate panna cotta, or even a coffee one. Today I am sharing a mango panna cotta. The simplest way to make a mango panna cotta would be to make a plain panna cotta and top it with fresh mango. But, if you want to make an impression try this layered mango panna cotta, which has slanted layers of mango jelly and vanilla cream panna cotta. You could also opt for a saffron or cardamom based panna cotta to compliment the mango jelly for this mango panna cotta recipe.
Panna cotta in its simplest form is cream, gelatin and sugar but you can use any combination of milk, cream, or use a dairy free alternative like coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk to make the panna cotta. The less fat in the panna cotta, the softer it will be, and the more difficult to unmold and have it hold its shape. You might need to adjust the amount of gelatin called for depending on the ratio and kind of milk and cream you use.
While I have used all cream in my previous panna cotta recipes, this mango panna cotta recipe is made with a combination of milk and cream. The thing to note here is that most recipes that call for heavy cream actually call for 36% fat cream. The cream that we get in India- most notably Amul cream is 25% fat. That is why, even though I have subbed a bit of the cream for the milk, its not by half. I also bloom the gelatin in water, reducing the overall fat content. If you would want to further replace the cream with more milk, I would suggest to try blooming the gelatin in milk to still have a nice creamy texture to the panna cotta.
Substitute for gelatin?
Gelatin is an animal product and not vegetarian. You can substitute agar agar or another vegetarian gelatin substitute. If you are using the agar agar powder 1:1 substitution works. I personally haven’t used agar agar , but from what I have read agar agar needs to be heated up more, and when using agar agar you bring the mixture to a boil. Please don’t confuse this with when you use gelatin. Gelatin’s thickening properties get destroyed when boiled, agar-agar on the other other needs to be boiled to be work properly in the recipe. I will work on a completely vegan panna cotta recipe in the future, and when I get good results will share it here.
Troubleshooting Panna cotta
The panna cotta is not set:
Boiling the mixture kills the gelatin and as a result the panna cotta might not set. Also, it might not have been set long enough. So wait a bit.
For blooming the gelatin, use cold water. Don’t bloom your gelatin in hot water. That again might prevent your panna cotta from setting.
My panna cotta has lumps:
Once bloomed, the gelatin should be dissolved in warm cream. If you add gelatin to a cold mixture, it will leave lumps and you will not get a smooth and velvety panna cotta.
To avoid the possibility of lumps, it might seem like an extra step but you could strain the gelatin-cream mixture and be sure you have lump free panna cotta.
How to get the slanted look for the Mango Panna Cotta
The most common way is to put your molds in muffin tray, but then you have to work with the appropriate sized glasses/molds that fit in the tray. I find using a square baking pan or a deep casserole dish that has a dish towel in it placed strategically to hold the glasses/mold in a slanted state to work better, and adjustable to any sort of glasses. For a better visual explanation you can check the video out on my instagram.
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- 2 cups mango, puréed with 2-3 tbsp water
- 1 tsp gelatin bloomed in 2 tbsp cold water
- 400 ml heavy cream ( I use 25% fat cream)
- 100 ml full fat milk
- ¼ (50 gms) cup sugar (adjust to your level of sweetnes
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp gelatin (see post for agar agar substitution)
- 3 tbsp cold water
- Bloom 1 tsp gelatin in 2 tbsp cold water for 5-10 minutes.
- In a blender purée the mangoes with 2-3 tbsp water, if required.
- Once the gelatin is bloomed, microwave the gelatin for few seconds (10 seconds at a time, till the gelatin has become liquid).
- Mix the gelatin and mango purée.
- Pour the mango mix in the glasses you plan to serve the dessert. To get the slanted look, place your glasses in a deep baking/casserole dish that has a dish towel in it. Place the glasses so that they are at an angle (see video). Pour the mango mix, and let set for 2-3 hours.
- Once the first layer is set, prepare the cream.
- Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan. Make sure to heat the cream on low heat. You only want a gentle simmer, and do not want the cream to boil.
- Once the sugar is dissolved, and the cream is substantially warm, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Let cool slightly.
- Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes till it swells up. Pour the very warm Panna Cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
- Divide the Panna Cotta mixture into the set mango glasses. If you are wary whether your gelatin has set or not, strain the mixture before pouring into the glasses.
- Chill the mango panna cotta until firm, which will take at least two hours but preferably let them set for at least four hours. Top with some fresh mango and mint as a garnish.
